The Ghost
by SheMarauder
Summary: A woman with special abilities survives the destruction of the Earth, and on her search for someone who may have survived as well she stumbles upon a small little puddle that will change her life forever. (I'm thinking Bruce WaynexOCxJoker. Thoughts?)
1. Chapter 1

**AN: I don't own anything from Batman. Quite tragic really. Anywho after you read this please review and tell me if I should make this a romance between my OC and Batman/Bruce Wayne, or my OC and The Joker. She's going to be meting them both in the story (naturally) but should my OC develope feeling for one of them?**

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I carefully made my way over the rubble that was once known as New York City. No longer were there any skyscrapers to construct my view. Instead there was nothing but debris covering the ground as far as the eye could see.

The year was 2088. Years ago war had broken out between the United States and China, and each countries allies were sucked into the conflict; causing the whole of the Earth to dissolve into a chaotic, never-ending mess.

The United States had held their own rather well, but when all of the other countries had started rising up and targeting the States, making them desperate. In their desperation the government asked each family to send in their first born child for "testing", saying the tests would help the war.

These children were handed over to government scientists and given all sorts of different tests. Some kids had their DNA altered, while some were given injections for strength, or speed. I've heard one was even for invisibility.

None of the children survived the tests. I am the exception.

From what I know, when I was born I was immediately taken away from my parents and shipped away for the testing. With the war beating down on the U.S. and all of the tests failing they concocted a new serum. It was never tested on another child and I was the first.

With all of the other failures the scientists hadn't had much hope. When they injected the serum they waited to see if any immediate changes would occur (most likely my death). To their mild surprise nothing happened and they sent me to a small nursery, and kept an eye on me.

After a few days passed nothing changed, and the scientists were stumped. Blood tests showed nothing changed, and nothing physically changed either. No other child had lived that long, and so they kept me under careful surveillance.

As the years passed the government continued their testing–with no success–while I stayed holed up in a grey room with four walls, a cot, and a dresser with a lamp on it. It was more of a cage then a bedroom. I always sat silently on the cot staring at nothing, instead of whining about being hungry or needing the bathroom.

I was seven years old when I first showed any signs of being different. When I grew older they showed me a video of me sitting on the cot as I usually did, when the blanket that was neatly folded at the end of my bed turned into a stuffed rabbit. Younger me had stared at the stuffed rabbit with blank eyes before I had held out my hand towards the rabbit, causing it to fly right into my grasp.

The scientists had been frantic for an explanation. Checking to make sure the video hadn't been tampered with, and yelling at all of those that knew of my existence to see what they had been doing that day.

When they came to the conclusion that nobody had messed with the footage, and nobody was with me at that moment in time, they came to confront me about what happened.

I had been clutching the stuffed bunny close to my chest, and they coaxed the bunny out of my arms to prove that it was indeed an authentic stuffed bunny. That had been the day it was realized that I had special abilities.

No I didn't have super strength, or speed, or invisibility. I had something unexplainable. The scientists called them abilities because that was much more realistic than saying magic. I always liked to think I was similar to Harry Potter, just not as awesome.

I grew up knowing nothing but my magic, the scientists around me, and the tests they would give me. It caused me to be withdrawn, and barely ever talked to anyone. As time went on I learned to get a better control over my magic, and once I had absolute control the government gave me over to some kind of secret agency and they taught me how to defend myself.

It was there that I learned how to move unseen in the shadows, how to defend myself with knives, and how to shoot a gun. I've basically been raised as a weapon.

When the agency deemed that I've learned all that I possibly could I was sent off on my first "mission". I was seventeen when I left the base that the government scientists had set up for the first time in my entire life, and it had felt amazing.

Never before had I seen the sky, the clouds, grass. It made me feel _alive_, like I actually had a purpose in my life other then going off on assassinations. That was my job, too. The government would pin down the leaders of the war that were the most threatening to the country, and they would send me off to "dispose" of them.

Every time I was sent on one of my "mission's" I felt dirty inside, even though I shouldn't have known any better. I knew what they were making me do was wrong, but I didn't know what to do about it. I was nothing but a mindless drone to them.

Being the teenager I was, I eventually felt a bout of rebelliousness. I snuck out of the base, stole one of their cars, and drove off to the nearest town. I had put a lot of planning in what I wanted to do.

I entered the first tattoo shop I came across, and when I entered I asked them if they could cut my hair. They were confused at first, but when I told them I needed it cut for the tattoo they agreed. My raven black locks were parted to the right covering up the right half of my face, while I had them shave the left side of my head.

Once it was completely shaved I gave them a rough description of what I wanted done. They were surprised by what I wanted, and warned me it would "hurt like a bitch" and "swell up". With a discreet wave of my hand I numbed the left side of my face and allowed them to get to work.

It wasn't finished until many hours later, but when it was done I got up from the chair and examined the pure art now taking up the entire left half of my face. It was like my skin was no longer their, and instead it was just muscle. Different hues of red and pink made the muscle look more realistic, but it was the teeth that got me.

The muscles looked like they had been ripped open, revealing teeth a vampire would be jealous of. Each tooth looked about half an inch long and filed down to a point. The top row fit perfectly against the bottom.

When I went to the front desk to pay for the tattoo everyone that was in the parlor was looking at me with fear. Being the ignorant tool that I was I didn't understand why they were afraid, but now I do.

Walking into the tattoo parlor I was intimidating enough. Dressed in nothing but black, with orange eyes that could seemingly stare directly into your soul. Now I had a tattoo that made me look even more terrifying than I was intimidating.

When I returned to the base nobody had recognized my right away. Some had pulled out their guns when they caught sight of my horrifying image. It wasn't until I stopped the barrage of bullets by simply raising my hand did someone finally recognize me.

I was given a terrible beating for what I had done. It shouldn't have been possible for me to have done it. They hadn't told me to do it. The moment I heard such words spoken between the scientists, a horrible rage sparked inside of me. It burned terribly but I forced it aside, allowing it to fester.

Instead of making me get rid of the tattoo they allowed me to keep it. Probably believing it would protect my identity or some nonsense like that. If I was put on an undercover mission I would have to cover up the tattoo and change my eye color. Easy enough with a bit of magic. I would also part my hair to the left, instead of the right.

It never bothered me when I did this. It allowed me to see what I really looked like. No matter how hard I tried, or how much I wanted, my hair always stayed its raven black color, and my eyes would only turn into a light brown color with subtle hints of orange near the pupil. I assumed this what what I would have looked like if I never went to that god forsaken base.

Funnily enough it wasn't the war that brought absolute destruction to the world, but it did help. Natural disasters occurred regularly all around the world. Volcanoes erupted, destroying entire cities. Massive earthquakes that caused enormous cracks to appear in the earth. Tsunamis and hurricanes flooding entire states. Even through all of that the war never ended. Instead of banding together to try and stop the end of the world, they helped it continue.

Day by day more people died off. The soldiers in the war, the civilians who weren't fast enough to escape the disasters. All of them were gone.

I searched the land day and night in the hopes I might find someone else out there that's loved through this destruction, but sadly it seems there is nobody else. Nobody but me.

My feet guided me to what used to be New York, but even if I wanted to there was no way I could hope to find anyone in the amount of debris covering the ground.

When the sun was at its highest, my feet finally made their way down to a small strip of road that must have led out of the city. I looked down at my black cargo pants, that were tucked into my black army boots, and I saw the dusty remnants of the city clinging to my pants from the knee down. I hadn't even noticed when I would sink into the debris.

Reaching down I brushed off what I could, succeeding in getting most of it off of my pants and some onto my fingerless black leather gloves. I would have wiped it onto another piece of clothing, but my sleeveless turtleneck and my leather trench coat were both black. The dust would just show up on them too.

Heaving a resigned sigh I started off on my journey to the next city or town I come across. Hopefully there would be someone there.

My eyes were focused on the road, allowing me to see a small puddle on the road. Puddles may not be that much of a big deal, but considering it hasn't rained for months and the day was scorching hot, it raised a few questions.

I walked over to the small puddle and crouched down onto one knee to examine it. It looked like a normal puddle, but instead of seeing the sun reflecting off of the surface I saw nothing but darkness. Intrigued I looked closer and saw something sparkling. Soon enough another sparkle appeared, then another. I realized something was moving inside of the puddle, revealing these lights.

Reaching out a finger to touch one of the lights I expected for my finger to touch the pavement, but instead it continued to sink. I ripped my hand out of the puddle and stared at it questioningly. I reached out my hand and plunged it through water,mans received the same result. My hand never hit the pavement that should have been there, instead sinking down to my elbow.

Standing up from my crouched position I tilted my head with intrigue. Glancing around as if there would be someone there to see this, I looked back at the puddle and shrugged. I have nothing to lose anyway.

With a single step forward my foot plunged into the puddle, and the rest of my body followed after it. The second my head disappeared through the puddle, the water vanished without a trace.

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**PS: My person kinda reminds me of Two-Face but I swear I made up her looks myself it was after I thought of it that I recognized the resemblance. Only she doesn't have any burn marks.**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Batman is not mine in any way shape or form. You probably already knew that, but I have to tell you anyway.**

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My eyes slowly opened to reveal a night sky filled with clouds, the occasional star revealing itself through.

The sun was no longer high in the sky like I distinctly remember it being. I quickly shot off of the ground and into a crouched position. My hand hovered over one of the many pockets of my black cargo pants.

My eyes surveyed my new surroundings with a practiced eye. A small pond was sitting several feet to my right, and from recent memories I assumed that was where I had come from. It helps that I was completely soaked. There was also a road several yards to my left. The road was completely empty of any cars.

About a mile up the road was a large city that looked a lot like New York, but there were enough differences for me to tell that it wasn't. I haven't seen any form of civilization since the natural disasters destroyed them all.

I stood up from my crouched position and pressed a hand to my chest and I felt my shirt slowly start to dry. It spread from my hand and transferred to my pants and trench coat. Once my clothes were fully dry I put my hand against my hair, and waited until the water evaporated away. It was easier for me to use my magic if I used my hand or a finger to direct it. If I tried doing it silently I could loose concentration and hurt myself or anybody around me.

With no other option I made my way over to the road, and set off towards the city, deep in thought.

How is it that I went from looking through the ruins of New York City on a sunny afternoon, to waking up on the outskirts of another city–that shouldn't even be standing–at night? The puddle I stumbled upon obviously had something to do with it, but what exactly did it do? I know it made me go through the ground, but that shouldn't have been possible. What puddle causes people to sink into the ground?

I suppose it could have been magic. If I was normal like everyone else on the planet (when they were alive anyway) then I wouldn't have believed it for a second. But I'm not normal. My abilities are proof that magic–or at least a form of it–is real. If that puddle was magic then what exactly did it do? From what I can tell so far it's transported me somewhere. Where I'm not sure, but I'm about to find out.

I've made it to the city, and I'm rather surprised at the lack of activity going around. Usually there would be cars backed up in traffic, horns honking, people yelling, the hundreds of pedestrians making their way down the sidewalks. Here there was barely anything.

Carefully observing the building around me I see that this must be the shabbier part of the city. There was grime covering the rundown buildings, the street lamps casted a dim glow over the streets; some of the lamps weren't even on.

Blending into the shadows I looked around to see a street sign that might be able to give me a clue on where exactly I was. If not just the street I was in then the city itself.

I passed by the entrance of a dark alley, and I wouldn't have given it a second thought if I hadn't heard what could only be described as a muffled scream.

Slipping into the alley I pressed myself against the wall and kept to the shadows. My eyes surveyed the dark, dank alleyway, and I was able to see two forms struggling against the ground.

From body type alone one was no doubt a man, and the leaner figure fighting underneath him was much more feminine. The first and most logical conclusion would be that the man was attempting to rape the woman, and from her futile struggles I would say he was succeeding.

I wasn't trained to save people, only to kill them. Obviously I had to get the man off of her, but I wasn't sure how. I didn't have much upper body strength because I've never needed it, my magic was enough. I could try using my magic to drag him off, but if he had a good enough grip on the woman he would just drag her with him.

Turning away to leave the alley I figured I could deal with the guilt that settled in my stomach when I had the time to think about it. I hadn't even stepped out of the shadows when a woman–no doubt the would be rape victim–screamed out, "Batman! Help!"

I immediately stopped in my tracks. _Batman? The Bruce Wayne that dresses up as a bat, Batman?_ It was rare for me to be given the freedom of watching a movie while in that government base, but when I was allowed I usually chose one of the superhero movies, Batman being my favorite. Of course the movies only tell you so much about the characters, and everything else came from rumors or the Internet. Neither were exactly reliable sources.

Discarding those thoughts I returned my attention to the struggle in time to see the man raise his arm as if to slap the woman. With honed reflexes, a knife easily slipped down from a hidden pocket in my sleeve and settled into the palm of my hand. I flicked my wrist and watched as the knife easily sliced through the air and embedded itself into the mans arm.

The man let out a wail of pain, and stumbled off of the woman, clutching at his arm where the knife had been lodged. Now that my presence was no longer a secret I ran down the alley, and straight towards the man. He saw my approach and I saw fear shining in his eyes.

His fear made him pause long enough for me to run right up to him and deliver a sharp punch right to his jaw. His head snapped to the side, and he crumpled to the ground in even more pain then before. I had to give him points for determination he struggled to stand back up.

"Batman?" Looking over at the woman I saw she had used the wall to help herself stand up. When I turned my head she was able to see my orange eyes, and muscle tattooed face. "Y-you're not Batman." She pressed herself closer to the wall as if hoping it would swallow her.

I shook my head in the negative, "No, I'm not." My voice was a little hoarse from lack of use. There was never any reason for me to speak. No one ever talked to me, and in turn I had no one to talk to. I only knew how to talk because the scientists had decided it was necessary to give me a normal education. They only taught me so much though. Twenty-nine years old, and I could probably only get through high-school.

"Then…" the woman licked her lips, "who are you?"

The scientists had never actually given me a name. I was only ever called Patient 0220666. I always liked to think the first four numbers represented my birthday, and the last three were most likely given to me as a symbolic meaning.

Whatever answer I was going to give her was interrupted when I noticed her eyes widening at something behind me. I ducked without question, and I was just in time to dodge a swing from the man who apparently was no longer on the ground. Clutched in his hand was my dagger, covered in what must have been his blood.

Staying in my crouched position I spun around and struck my leg out. It collided with the back of the mans knees, and he once again crumpled to the ground. I scrambled on top of him and straddled his waist as we grappled for the knife.

After a while I gave up trying to fight him for it and allowed my hands to slowly heat up. They eventually became to hot for the man to handle and he dropped the knife with a cry of pain.

I stopped heating up my hand and waisted no time picking up the knife. Pressing the knife to the mans throat I stared deep into his eyes and saw nothing but fear.

My lip curled in disgust, and I began pressing the knife harder against the mans throat, fully prepared to kill him. What was he compared to all of the other men I've killed.

The knife barely made a cut into the mans neck when something grabbed onto my shoulder, and hauled me off of him. I heard the woman scream again, but I ignored her as I took in the new threat.

He was barely visible in the less than decent lightning of the alley, but I could make out the odd black armor that covered his entire body. He wore braces on each arm, a belt wrapped around his waist, and a cape was draped over his shoulders. The one thing that really gave away this mans identity was the black cowl covering most of his face.

Batman has finally appeared, and by the look on his face he was not happy with me.

A black gloved hand came flying towards my face, and I was lucky enough to dodge out of the way. I was never trained in hand-to-hand combat, and there was no way I was about to get into a fist fight with Batman. He was practically a ninja.

Our "fight" (me dodging and him throwing punches) was abruptly ended when a woman's scream rang through the alley. Both Batman and I stopped our "fight" and looked over to see the man had one arm wrapped around the woman's waist, and the other around her throat. The knife was once again in his hands, and he was pressing it against her neck.

"Don't move, or she dies!"

My eyebrows rose in mild surprise. Why hadn't this guy run off when he had the chance? Or the woman for that matter. "Why should I care if she dies?" Man this whole talking thing was kinda tiring.

The man looked at me in confusion, and I wouldn't be surprised if Batman and the woman were as well. "You just tried to save her earlier!" The man exclaimed.

"You were going to rape her. Why wouldn't I have done something?"

The man gaped at me, "You would be okay if I kill her, but not rape her?" I shrugged. "You're insane!"

"I am many things, but insane isn't one of them." Stepping forward I saw the knife press harder into the woman's neck. She whimpered, but I didn't cast a sing,e glance at her face. My eyes were locked on the mans.

I would have continued forward if a gloved hand hadn't stopped me. I trailed my eyes up the arm and saw Batman's stern eyes looking at me. He obviously cared about the woman's safety.

Heaving a half-weary, half-exasperated sigh I stuck my hand out, and with a wiggle of my fingers the knife shot out of the mans hand and returned up my sleeve. A small smirk appeared on my lips when I saw the man look at his hands with confusion. Even the woman looked confused.

Batman took this chance to pounce forward, and punch the man in the face. His grip on the woman loosened enough for her to run out of his arms, and straight for me. Her arms latched around my neck and she buried her head into the crook of my neck. I could feel the wetness of her tears against my skin as she sobbed her heart out.

I've never been hugged before, and I had no idea what to do, so I just awkwardly patted her on the back in a universal "there there".

"Go home. Both of you."

The gravely voice came from in front of me, and I looked up with a grimace. "Wow your throat must hurt in the morning." I was surprised by my words. I'm usually a woman of few words, but this night seems to be changing that. Whether or not it's good or bad I have yet to find out.

Naturally Batman didn't say anything, but our silence was broken by the woman's sniffling. Thankfully she had stopped outright sobbing, but tears were still silently streaming down her cheeks. "Th-thank you. Both of you. F-for helping me." She sniffled again before quickly shuffling out of the alley.

I was now left alone with Batman and I turned to look at him. Was this actually happening? Was it possible that that weird puddle brought me into Batman's world? How was that even possible? Maybe this was all just a dream. But the sharp pain in my side was a nice reminder that Batman had landed a hit, and you're not supposed to feel pain in dreams.

"Why did you attack me?" No answer. "Was it because I was going to kill him?" Still no answer. "Did you think I was the one who attacked them?" I decided to take his silence as agreement. "I don't blame you. I do look rather weird." Had I been in his position,and saw someone with their head half shaved off, and a tattoo of their muscles and T-rex teeth, I most likely would have thought the same thing. "See you later Batman. Possibly. Maybe."

I turned around and made my way to the entrance of the alley. When I turned around to give Batman another goodbye, he was nowhere to be seen. Shrugging I continued forward, but a small smile was stuck on my face.

If everything that's happened was really true, and this wasn't a dream, then I'm actually in Gotham City, and I just met the one and only Batman.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: Batman is not mine in any way shape or form. You probably already knew that, but I have to tell you anyway.**

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The early morning sun was rising quickly, signaling a new day. Now that it was no longer dark people were emerging from their homes to head off for work.

Sometime during the night I had navigated myself out of the seedier part of the city. I could tell the difference because the surrounding buildings were much taller, and much more well kept. Even the alleyways had better lighting.

Being in the better part of the city also meant that there were more people around who could see me. As a precaution I changed my appearance to what others would consider normal. Red converse, black skinny jeans, a purple tank top, and a black zip-up sweater. The left side of my head was no longer shaved away, with my hair was parted to the left instead of the right. The tattoo muscle and sharp teeth disappeared, and my orange eyes turned into a soft brown with orange flecks.

With nowhere to go and nothing to do I wandered the city. The possibility that this was Gotham City from the many movies and comics made me feel a childish giddiness.

When the world had been destroyed by the wars and natural disasters, I had been free from the governments clutches. There was nobody to tell me what to do, or when to do it. The only downside had been when I discovered I was the only person left in the world. I was to live my life alone, with no one to share it with.

Now it seems that I stumbled upon some sort of portal that brought me to this…world? Dimension? Either way this would allow me to have a new chance at life. A normal one. The only problem was that I have no idea how to _be_ normal.

My musings were cut short my the unmistakable sound of a gun shot. My entire body tensed up, and I was immediately on high alert. The few people that passed me gave me a few strange looks, but I ignored them. There was no way I was the only one that heard those shots.

Continuing forward in a much slower pace I strained my ears for any more shots. There wasn't anything for a while, but soon enough I heard another shot. This shot came from my right, and when I looked over I saw the front door leading into "Gotham's National Bank".

_A bank robbery?_ I stared at the front doors as I thought this. I could pretend I didn't hear anything at all, and just walk away. Unfortunately my conscience wouldn't allow me to. If I was to walk away I would feel guilty for not at least trying to help. It seems that since coming to this dimension I've grown feelings.

I barely hesitated before stepping forward to make my way up the steps towards the bank. With each step I took my appearance began to change. My clothes morphed into their original black army boots, cargo pants, sleeveless turtleneck, and a leather trench coat. The fingerless gloves were still on my hands.

The entire left side of my head changed. My black locks began to shorten until they were no longer their, and I easily pushed the rest over to the right side of my head. The image of my tattoo returned. Red and pink muscles with the occasional blue or red vein. Ripped muscle went up the side of my cheek, uncovering the image of razor sharp teeth. It gave me the look of a shark like grin. And the orange fleck of my brown eyes spread until there was no brown left.

By the time my transformation was finished I had made it through the doors of the bank. I put on a blank face as I made my way through the bank. From what I could see there were three people wearing clown masks robbing the bank. One of which was laying on the ground with a patch of red on his back. Obviously he was dead, but from what?

I got my answer when I heard even more gunshots. There was a man in a business suit holding a shotgun, and he was shooting it at the little kiosk desks that were lined up in front of the tellers desks. In between the teller desks and the kiosks were the people unfortunate enough to be stuck in a bank robbery.

Striding forward I made my way towards the fancy dressed man. I could see he was shooting at one of the robbers that was ducking behind the kiosks, but for God sakes he could be a bit more mindful of the other people.

Business guy aimed the shot gun, and I quickly hit the gun so it pointed at the ceiling. The action startled the man, and he ended up shooting the gun. His startled eyes turned towards me, and when he saw my face his eyes widened with fear that had been hidden previously. "What the hell are you?!"

"I'm smarter than you dipshit!" I ripped the gun out of his hands. "Honestly, shooting a gun at cowering hostages!" Bringing up the butt of the gun I hit him in the forehead, making him drop to the floor while groaning in pain. "They're scared enough as it is! Not to mention you might end up shooting one of them." I threw the gun down, and it ended up hitting him right in the groin. He released another, louder groan of pain.

Looking up from the man on the floor I saw all of the hostages staring at me, along with two men wearing clown masks. Both men were pointing guns at me. The three of us were locked in what I assumed to be a staring contest. I couldn't exactly see their eyes through the mask.

The heavy silence was broken when the shaky voice of a woman spoke up, "You're–you're the one that saved me last night."

Everybody's eyes moved towards the woman who spoke. She had shoulder length blonde hair, and pretty blue eyes. Apparently she was the same woman that I save just a few hours before. I nodded, "I did, yes."

Looking the woman over I noticed something was clutched in her hands. "What are you holding?"

Her frightened eyes strayed down to the object in her hands. "It's a ah," a fearful sob got caught in her throat but she cleared it away, "it's a bomb."

Furrowing my brows I walked over to her. From the corner of my eye I saw one of the guys tense up, while the other one dropped his hands to his sided with the gun still in his grasp.

I crouched down in front of the woman, and I saw that she had been telling me the truth. Her hand was squeezing the handle against a grenade to keep it from going off. She was holding of so tight her knuckles were turning white.

"Where did you get a grenade?" Looking around I realized a couple others had one as well.

Her eyes flicked over to the masked men and I understood. Slowly I stretched my arms out and extracted the grenade from her grip. She didn't hesitate to hand it over, and her shoulders seemed to sag in relief.

I stood back up and kept my eyes glued to the grenade. I held it between my fingertips as I examined the hand sized bomb. Despite the war I had never had the opportunity to see one.

"What are you doing?!"

My gaze went from the grenade to one of the other hostages. He was looking at the grenade in my hand with fear. "I'm not doing anything."

"It's going to explode if you don't squeeze the handle!"

I continued to stare at him blankly, and it seemed that my lack of care worried him even more. "You're worried it will explode?" He wasn't the only one to nod.

I looked over to the men with the clown masks. "Which one of you had the great idea to give these," I held up the grenade for emphasis, "to them?"

They just continued to look at me silently until the one wearing the mask with a red painted smile jabbed his thumb towards the one in a purple suit. The guy in the purple suit silently turned and tilted his head.

"Well no offense to you, but that was a rather stupid idea." He stopped staring at his partner and looked over at me. His silence was a little unnerving but I easily ignored it. "What if one of them dropped it?" I shook my head at him in mock disappointment.

For a moment he just stood there, but then he shrugged unrepentantly.

I shook my head at him with a small grin on my face. My attention soon returned to the grenade and I knew that at any second it would go off. Surviving the end of the world only to die by a grenade seemed rather pathetic to me, so I quickly took my hands away from the grenade.

Everyone had expected it to fall to the floor, but they were surprised when it stayed suspended between my hands. Turning my hands so the palms were facing the ceiling I made a slight raising motion. As I made the motion the grenade rose as well.

The next second a large boom rang throughout the bank, and everybody closed their eyes waiting for the burning sensation of being blown up. The only two people that hadn't closed their eyes were me, and the man in a purple suit.

Both of our heads were tilted up as we watched what was going on only four feet above us.

The grenade had exploded, but instead of overtaking the bank the flames hit a blue see-through barrier. Everyone eventually opened their eyes and gaped at the sight of the roiling orange flames. The flames were the same color as my eyes.

After a little while the flames eventually faded away, leaving nothing but dark grey smoke. I brought my hands together and made the barrier grow smaller and smaller until both the smoke and the barrier disappeared altogether.

Dropping my hands to my sides I looked down to see everyone was now staring at me in disbelief. I shook my head in exasperation, "It's like you've never seen magic before."

My statement caused every one of the hostages jaws to drop. Whether or not the masked mens jaws dropped, I'm not sure.

The man with the painted smile suddenly pointed his gun at me. I could see his hands shaking. "What are you?"

I tilted my head and furrowed my brows in thought. "You know I'm honestly not sure."

As soon as I answered that question a bus burst through the wall, hitting the clown pointing his gun at me. The back door of the bus opened up and another clown masked man jumped out. "Schools out, time to go." He looked around and noticed the man he had hit was lying on the floor. "Guys not getting up is he?"

The man in a purple suit stepped over the one on the floor and began grabbing duffle bags from the floor. He threw it at the other man, and he threw it onto the bus. The newbie commented, "That's a lot of money."

Purple suit threw the newbie the last bag. He began looking around the floor to check if they grabbed all of the bags. When newbie asked what happened to the rest of their team, he was shot in the chest.

Walking through the hostages the one in the purple suit grabbed another duffle bag and threw it onto the bus. He was about to hop on when a voice from the floor broke the silence that had settled.

"Think your smart huh?" Both me and the last robber looked over to see the man I had hit over the head with his shot gun curled up on the floor. In all honesty I had forgotten all about him. "Ha! The guy that hired you is just gonna do the same to you."

He stopped trying to get on the bus and slowly made his way over to the man on the floor. The man continued, "Criminals in this town used to believe in things. Honor. _Respect_." He spat out the word as if it were something fowl. "What do you believe in huh? What do you believe in!"

The man in the purple suit crouched down and gripped the other mans head. He shoved a long cylinder into the business mans mouth. "I believe, that whatever doesn't kill you, simply makes you…" he reached up and removed his mask from his face, "stranger."

Now that I could see who it was behind the mask I wanted to hit myself. I should have realized who he was earlier when I saw his suit, but I had to see the make-up and trademark scars to realize who he was. Scars going from the corner of his mouth to his cheekbones. They were covered with red greasepaint, while the rest of his face was covered in white greasepaint and black around his eyes. _Holy shit it's the Joker. Is it possible for me to fangirl?_

The Joker stood up and began walking towards the bus. I noticed a purple strong was attached to the cylinder in the mans mouth. I followed it with my eyes to see it was from the Jokers coat.

He hoisted himself onto the bus and turned around to look at me. "You comin' sweet cheeks?"

I weighed my options before deciding, _screw it_, and I walked over to the bus. He offered me his gloved hand and I took it without hesitation. He pulled me onto the bus before making his way towards the front.

I turned around and looked at the man on the floor. Seeing the terrified look on the mans face made pity well up inside of me. Unzipping one of the pockets to my pants o took out a knife and cut the thread. Before I shut the door I told him, "Don't worry big guy, that's not a bomb." With a nod to the rest of the hostages I closed the door and made my way to the front.

I had barely made it two steps before the bus lurched forward, causing me to fall backwards. High-pitched laughter sounded from the front of the bus, and I carefully ignored it as I stood up. Keeping a tight grip on the seats of the bus I stepped over the duffel bags and walked towards the front seat on the right side of the bus. The Joker was the one driving, and somehow there was a convenient line of buses he was able to pull into.

With a sigh of relief I sat down in the seat. Upon hearing police sirens I crawled into the seats cross from me and peeked out to see a line of police cars rushing the opposite way. I shook my head and murmured with a smirk, "The police are never their when you need them most."

"Qu_ite_ r_ight_."

Rising out of the seat I wrapped an arm sound the back of the drivers seat as I leaned against it. "Why a bus?"

The Joker took a sharp left turn, and if I hadn't been holding onto his seat I would have ended up in the floor. "Why no_t_?"

I sighed, "Fair enough."

We made our way through the city, no longer in the line of school buses. Each building we passed seemed to get even smaller, and that was when I realized we were getting into the grittier part of the city. The same part of the city I had had to navigate out of last night. If my memory was correct this was the Narrows.

"God damn it, I just got out of here this morning and I'm getting brought back."

"Do forgive me ah, _dollface_, " I grimaced at the obvious jab at my face, "but you're just gonna have to _deal_ with it."

We descended into another silence. I thought it was rather odd that he would be so quiet. From what I know he was a rather talkative guy. Whether or not his silence was a bad thing has yet to be seen.

"So you're um, some kind of _witch_ then huh?"

_So much for being silent. _"Not exactly. At least I don't think so."

"And what's the difference?"

"Well I can't make potions, or fly."

The Joker licked at his lips, "How…_disappointing_. If you can't do any of that, then what can you do?"

Glancing down at the speedometer I realized we were going as fast as the bus would allow. How I'd hadn't noticed before, I had no idea. Taking a small step forward I set my hand on the dash and closed my eyes. My head tilted and my eyebrows were furrowed in concentration.

After a moment of nothing happening I suddenly felt the bus go even faster then before. Crazy cackling came from next to me, and despite the speed we were going he didn't even try pressing the brakes. "Whoo! Giddy up Miss Magic!"

_Miss Magic? Where did he get that one from?_ Despite my wonderings I gave a mental push, and the bus went even faster. After a beat, the Joker suddenly took a sharp turn, causing me to loose my footing and crash into his lap.

Instead of pushing me out of his lap he just continued laughing. Even harder than before if that was possible.

We both adjusted to the new position. I pushed myself up and leaned against the driver side window while my legs were stretched out and hung off of his lap. The Joker brought his arms out from underneath me, and reached one around my shoulders where he shoved my face against his shoulder, and the other gripped the steering wheel.

Now that I was no longer pushing my magic into the engine the bus slowed back down to its original speed; although we were still going as fast as the bus could go.

I tried pulling my face away from his shoulder but he just pushed even harder. Eventually I stopped struggling and gave a loud sigh of defeat. The Joker patted my head, much like one would to a dog.

"What else can my little witch do huh?"

"Well for starters I'm not yours, and I'm not a witch." His only response was a grunt. "As for what else I can do…well a lot of things I guess. I wouldn't know where to start."

"I would tell you to do something bu_t_," the bus came to a screeching stop, "it seems we're here!" The Joker wasted no time in pushing me out of his lap. The force of the push caused me to fall down the small steps and into the closed doors.

The Joker gave a short laugh at my position as he got out of his seat and headed for the back of the bus. With a groan of pain I pushed myself off the floor of the bus and followed him to the back.

He opened up the back door and started throwing out the duffle bags of what I correctly assumed to be filled with money. Once I made it to him I set a hand on his shoulder and slightly pushed him to the side, "How you people live without magic, I may never know." With a simple snap of my fingers the remaining bags disappeared, only to reappear on the ground right outside of the bus. I hopped out of the bus, and from the slight thump I heard behind me so did the Joker.

He brushed passed me and ambled over to a small silver car. His hand gripped the driver side handle and tried tugging it open. Naturally it was locked. Joker looked at the ground around him before seemingly giving up and reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small knife. He brought his arm back and jabbed the knife into the window, causing it to shatter.

His arm snaked through the now broken window and unlocked the door, before swinging it open and unlocking the rest of the car. "You know you could have just asked." I walked forward and pointed at the shattered glass on the ground before slowly dragging my finger up to point at the window. The glass flew up and returned to their place in the window. When all the pieces were back in it sealed without a single scratch in sight.

"Then how about doing that little," he started snapping his fingers at me.

A sneer made its way onto my face, "I could."

Joker dropped his hands and sent me a dark look. "Pre_tty_ pleeease?"

A smile made its way onto my face, but the tattoo of razor sharp teeth made it a little more terrifying then bright. "Of course I can!" With an exaggerated snap of my fingers the bags once again disappeared, and reappeared in the back seat of the car.

He climbed into the car with a lick of the lips, slamming it after he was in. At first I couldn't see him because he had ducked underneath the dashboard, but after a moment the car suddenly started.

Joker suddenly sat upright in the seat with a wide grin on his face like nothing was wrong. And I guess technically nothing was wrong. Depending on your point of view.

He pulled awash from the curb and stopped the car next to me. After a moment of nothing happening window rolled down. "You gonna get in toots?"

I put a hand on the frame and leaned down to look through the window, "Not this time Joker, not this time." I leaned away from the window, "Next time I see you I expect you to be wearing a better suit."

With a small pat I stepped away from the car and began walking in the other direction. I heard the telltale crunch of grave, as the car drove off.

_One day. I've been in this city for one day and I run into Batman, and the Joker. _Whatever doubts I had about this city were just wiped away. _Now all I have to do is find a way out of the Narrows. Again._


	4. Chapter 4

It was several hours ago that the Joker and I parted ways, and I was still stuck in the Narrows. I thought I remembered the way out, but apparently I didn't. Not really wanting to get any more lost then I already was I climbed up to the roof of the nearest building to watch the full moon.

That was how Batman found me.

Bruce had just finished making his rounds through the city, and he was more than ready to get back to his penthouse and sleep. Thankfully he hasn't gained any terrible injuries, on,y a few minor cuts and bruises. He'll have to get a new suit soon.

He was running across the rooftops of some building on the edge of the Narrows when he caught sight of a figure sitting on the edge of a roof. They were gazing up at the moon, seemingly lost in thought.

Normally Bruce would have ignored this, but something about this person made him change his course from going home, to head towards the roof that they were sitting on. He justified that he was just making sure they weren't up to anything.

Silent as death, he jumped on the corner of the roof that was covered with the most shadows. The light of the moon was shining directly on the figure, and he was able to make out the familiar tattoo from the woman he had run into the night before.

"You again."

Hiding my flinch of surprise I mentally cursed myself for not paying better attention to my surroundings. Removing my gaze from the moon I looked over the roof until my eyes landed on the darkest corner that the moons rays couldn't touch. I could barely make out the dark figure of the masked vigilante.

Neither of us said anything at first as we continued to watch each other; waiting for the other to make the first move.

Batman's gravely voice cut through the silence first, "Who are you." It wasn't a question.

"Even if I knew I wouldn't tell you B."

He didn't say anything about the nickname, deciding instead to keep his stoic mask. I decided to take his silence as annoyance though.

"You don't know who you are?" Batman's voice didn't betray any of his emotions.

"I'll be honest with you B, nobody knows who I am."

"I doubt that. There's someone out there that knows who you are. Family. Friends."

I gave a bitter chuckle, "How can somebody else know who I am when I don't even know?" Shaking my head sadly I looked back up to the moon.

Still keeping his face blank Batman stepped out of the shadows. He slowly made his way closer to my side, and when he was standing next to me I looked over.

"Most people would be too freaked out by my tattoo to come any closer you know." I told him lightly.

He ignored my comment. "You were there when Gotham Bank was robbed."

I didn't bother denying it so I just nodded, "I was yes. Why?"

"What do you know of the Joker?"

A snort escaped me before I could stop it. _Only his (possible) real name._ "Honestly? Nothing. That man is an absolute mystery, and probably always will be."

"You escaped with him. You must know something about him. Where he's hiding. Who works for him."

"Sorry B but," I set a hand on his shoulder and gave it a friendly squeeze, "I escaped with him because I needed a ride. I couldn't exactly stay there when the police showed up. I'd be thrown in jail right away." Before pulling away I pushed some of my magic into his body to rid it of any aches or pains. I knew how tiring his nightly job could be.

I walked over to the otherwise of the roof, but before I climbed down I turned around to face Batman who had yet to move. "Oh and Batman?" He didn't move, but I knew he was listening. "Say hi to Alfred for me."

When his head whipped around to look at me I sent him a two fingered salute before taking off for another roof. I was in no mood to find out how he felt about my not-so-subtle push on me knowing who he was. If I was anyone else I probably wouldn't have said anything, but being who I was I would want to know if someone knew my identity–despite not really having one.

I jumped onto another rooftop and this time instead of continuing forward I made myself invisible. Looking around me I stayed completely still as I waited to see if Batman had followed me. If I moved too much then I would become partially visible once again until I became completely still or made myself visible.

Apparently I had the right idea because about a minute later Batman appeared on the rooftop. I held my breath as I waited to see what he would do, but it seemed that my spell worked, and after a moment he took off to the alley below.

The breath I was holding left me in a rush, and I cancelled the magic making me invisible. There was no reason for me to stay on the roof I was on so. Clambered over to the side of the building and looked around until I spotted a fire escape. Without much of an option I jumped down, and cringed when a loud clash echoed around the alley I was now above.

Worried that someone would have heard that I changed my trench coat into a black hoodie, and I pushed the hood over my head. If I decide to change my features then it would take too long, and the remaining darkness of the night would cover my face just enough. Although with the sun quickly rising then I would have to get off of this fire escape quickly.

I hoisted myself over the railing and dropped down until my feet landed on the platform below. This continued for five flights until I was finally on the wet pavement.

Seeing the sun rising above the buildings of Gotham made mere alive that I haven't slept for about two days. It's nothing new–I've gone without sleep for a week once–but that doesn't mean I'm not exhausted. This time it's not just physically its emotionally.

Keeping my hood on I felt my hair grow back out until it was even with the right side. Briefly glancing down at a puddle told me that my tattoo was gone, as well as my orange eyes. My cargo pants turned into nice black slacks, and my turtleneck under the sweater changed into a white v-neck. No longer needing the sweater I changed it into a nice black overcoat that would be warm enough to fend off the early morning chill. Without the hood I was able to part my hair to the left.

I dug my hands into my pockets where I felt my hand brush up against something thin and plastic. My eyebrows furrowed in confusion and I took the object out of my pocket and held it in front of my. My confusion morphed into surprise as I gazed down at the good Visa card. Flipping it over I didn't find any names that could help me find out who it belonged to.

Replacing it in my pocket I decided that my first goal of the day would be to find out where they card came from. I mentally groaned at them thought of going to another bank. I've had just about enough of them thanks to yesterday.

It took a while to find a bank, but after asking a few people for directions I finally stumbled up the steps of the city's bank.

Pushing open the front door I wasted no time walking up to the front desk and sliding the card over to the teller. "Please pardon me ma'am, but I found this card and I'm not sure who's it is."

The lady barely spared me a glance as she picked it up and began copying the sixteen digit number into her computer. "The card isn't owned by anyone. It was frozen a few days ago by the last owners." She slid the card back over to me.

"Can you tell me about the account?" I asked, a little frustrated by the woman's airy tone.

She sighed and began typing furiously on the computer, and with a final clock of her mouse another page was pulled up. Whatever was on the page must have been huge because I saw her eyes widen.

"What is it?"

The lady looked at me with distain, but her eyes traveled down to the Visa card and a greedy glint entered her eye. I gave a sharp whistle, and when she looked back up my eyes bored into hers, "What's on the card madam." I was demanding her to tell me.

She absentmindedly nodded. "The account holds 14 billion dollars. It was suddenly transferred and frozen onto that card, and only a P. 0220666 can access it."

My eyes widened at the amount of money, and at the fact it all apparently belonged to me. "I was known as P. 0220666 by several past…friends." I didn't want to use the word friends but I didn't have much of an option.

"I'll need proof that you are who you claim to be." She was still in that drone like state.

"No you don't. All you need to know is that I am P. 0220666. Also to be known as," I paused as I thought of what name I could possibly give myself. To others it might not have been that big of a deal, but for me it was. "Sara. Sara Davis." Sara had always been a name that I liked, and Davis was just the first name I could think of.

The woman began typing on her keyboard. "Middle name?"

"Mmm…Marie." That sounded like it would go well with Sara Davis.

"Birthday?"

"February 20."

"Year?"

"Urm…I'm 29."

She continued typing, "Born in 1979."

I wanted to gape at the woman. If my math was correct then it was only 2008. I'm eighty years in the past. _Well I'll be damned. Should have seen that one comin'._

"Social security?"

"For gods sake just open the account for me!" My small outburst drew some peoples attention but I ignored them.

By the time I made it out of the bank it was an hour later and I was steaming with frustration from all of the questions I either couldn't answer or didn't know how. If I didn't have magic then I would be screwed. Thankfully I was able to get the card under my name and I can use it in a few hours.

What confused me was where the money came from. It apparently appeared a few days ago, the same time that I did. It's possible that it came from my dimension, but the I have to wonder how it got here when I came by puddle.

Drained from such a long day I ended up walking by a small café that looked so cozy I just couldn't pass by. I pushed open the door and was greeted by a soft bell to announce my presence and a warm, welcoming atmosphere that was much more different than the rest of the city.

"Hi! Welcome to Lyra's café. Can I help you?"

My eyes went over to the cashier standing behind the counter. She had blonde hair, and blue eyes. Heavy red lipstick with light eyeshadow and blush. She was about 5'4" only coming up to about my shoulder. It was the same woman from the alley, and the bank robbery.

_This is ridiculous the city isn't that small. Is there a reason I keep running into her?_ "Do you know where I might find a job?"

"You've come to the right place then! We're looking for a cashier right now. If you want the job it's yours."

"You're just _giving_ me the job? You don't even know who I am!"

She just shrugged, "I've been needing a cashier for a while now. So are you in or what?"

I saw no reason not to accept. The job was so I wouldn't be sitting around all day doing nothing after I got a house to live in. There was no way I would be sleeping in some damp alleyway. The café was also in a nicer part of the city, so that was a plus.

"Yeah I'll take it. I'm Sara Davis by the way." I walked up to her and reached over the counter to shake her hand. It felt weird being able to introduce myself.

She shook my hand back, "I'm Lyra Jenkins."

"So this is your café then?"

Lyra gave a proud nod, "It sure is. If you'd like you can start tomorrow. When you come in wear casual clothes and put up your hair. I'll give you an apron and a cap you can wear."

Nodding my acceptance I left the small café and took off down the street. Now that I had a job, all I needed was a place to live. Unfortunately for me I didn't know anything about the layout of the city. I had to constantly ask people for directions which most,y ended up giving me a bigger headache. One person would give me one direction while another said the opposite.

I was finally led to a sleek building that rose many stories from the ground. The sides of the building were nothing but glass windows.

Pushing open the glass door I took a moment to admire the beautiful main entrance before a man sitting at the marble front desk called me over with a happy smile. "Hello ma'am, how may I help you?"

"Well I was hoping you could point me in the direction of where I could find a place to stay."

"We have some beautiful penthouses up on the top floor for as low as 3 million dollars." The man plucked a small brochure from a small rack on his desk and handed it to me.

Accepting the brochure with a smile I opened it to reveal the mans words to be true. The penthouses really were beautiful–at least the ones in the picture.

One of the penthouses pictured was the one on the very top floor. It has two bedrooms and two full-baths. A newly renovated kitchen, and new furniture. Along with a fireplace and what looked like a mini pond/fish tank looking thing.

"I think I would like to take a look at this one." I turned the brochure to face the smiling man and pointed at the picture of the penthouse.

"Of course! Please follow me to the elevators and I'll give you a quick tour." He stood up from behind his desk and walked over to the steel doors of the buildings elevators. He pushed the up button and the elevator doors dinged open.

We stepped onto the elevator and he pushed the very top button with the number 69 printed on it. The ride was fairly quick, but it was filled with a rather awkward silence. Awkward for me anyway.

We finally reached the 69th floor, and the elevator doors opened to reveal the most beautiful home I've ever seen. It was all one room separated by grey marble that stretched from one end of the room to the other. The marble was filled with hundreds of smooth grey rocks, and every two feet had a small stream shooting out of the rocks.

On the left side of the fountain was what must have been the living room. The wall was covered with windows, but in the very middle was a strip of grey with a flatscreen tv hanging above a black gas fireplace. Facing the tv with its back to the fountain was an L-shaped white couch. A white wooden coffee table with a glass tabletop sat between the couch and the fireplace wall.

The right side of the fountain held the kitchen. Each of the appliances were stainless steel, and the counter tops were granite. The kitchen had an island with the same granite countertop, and hanging above it were several lights that hung down from the ceiling from black iron rods. Each rod was a different length, making the lights uneven. It was simple, but I really liked it.

On the other end of the fountain I could see a long hallway. I walked down the length of the fountain. My black ballet flats were silent against the dark hardwood floors.

I made it to the hallway and slowly walked down until I came across two doors. The door to the left opened up to a beautiful full bathroom. The white tiled floor had veins of gold running across it–at least it looked like gold. The double sink was also white with gold veins, and dark wood cabinets. There were two rectangular mirrors, one to hang over each sink. A matching dark wood trim wrapped around them. The toiled was a simple porcelain white, along with the bathtub. The shower walls matched the tiled floors, with a simple steel shower head.

Closing the door to the bathroom I moved on to the door on the other side of the hallway. Turning the doorknob I slowly pushed open the door to see what must have been the guest room. The walls were white, along with the plush carpet. The opposite wall was all windows, with a king sized bed pushed up against the middle window. A nightstand was on both sides of the bed with a small table lamp on each one. A long dresser sat across from the bed and another flatscreen tv sat on top; although it was smaller than the one in the living room. Another dresser was pushed up to the wall on the far left of the room. A large mirror was attached to the top of the dresser.

Exiting the bedroom I continued down the hallway where the last door was located. When I opened the door to the master bedroom my breath was taken away.

Each wall was nothing but windows that reached from floor to ceiling. The floors were a light brown color, and the ceiling had small round lights embedded in the ceiling. The bed was on a raised platform against the far windows. There were three steps that led up to the bed.

Walking further into the room I looked around and saw two more doors. One on each side of the door leading to the living room. I went to the right door first and opened it to reveal a bathroom to die for.

It was a lot like the other bathroom with the white tiled floor with gold veins, and matching countertops. What made me salivate was the white steps leading up into a large jacuzzi. I could definitely stretch out with a glass of wine in that after a long, tiring day. And set up next to it was a large shower enclosed by white tiled walls. The two outside walls stopped halfway up, and finished off as glass.

There were four square shower heads in the ceiling making one large square, and another two on each of the tiled walls. It looked like pure heaven and I was dying to try it out.

"So how do you like it?"

The sudden voice made me jump and whip around. My hand instinctively came up and I thrust it forward. When I saw it was just the man from the front desk I forced myself not to let any of my magic hit the man. "Oh! You startled me! I'm sorry I forgot you were here."

He just chuckled like this was a normal occurrence. "That's quite alright. So what do you think?"

I didn't hesitate to give him my answer, "I'll take it."

* * *

We returned to the lobby where I was figuring out how to write a check. I was grateful that the man was all smiles and patience because I've been standing here for about five minutes before finally filling the whole thing out and handing it over. "So now that I'm paying this up front I can move in right away?"

He nodded, "That's correct." The man took the check from my fingers.

"Oh I should probably tell you that you should cash that in the morning. That's when my account will start working."

He nodded once again, and I came to the conclusion that most of what this guy did was nod and smile. How boring.

Nodding back I got to the elevators as quickly as I could. I could see the sun setting for the day and all I wanted to do was get to my room and see if my new bed was as comfy as it looked.

* * *

**AN: I don't know how well I did on describing things in this chapter. Or the whole buying a house thing. Give me a break I'm young.**


	5. Chapter 5

Life in Gotham wasn't as bad as I had first believed it would have been. My new place has yet to be robbed, and I haven't been mugged (yet being the key word in that sentence). My job at the café has actually been pretty good.

My first day at the café I had worked until eight in the evening. Working in a café was actually a lot harder than I had originally thought. I had to memorize the menu, and then when I found out I needed to know how to make coffee I just about threw off my apron in frustration. Thankfully Lyra had been there to help me out, and she was now showing me how to make the coffee she sells at the café.

The café itself closes at about eight, and that's when Lyra and I close up to go home. I was surprised by how dark it had grown at such an early hour, but I figured it's from all of the pollution in the city.

That first night Lyra had insisted on walking me home. I eventually caved and when Lyra realized where I was staying she almost feinted, and when she made me show her my actual apartment I had to help her stay standing. Apparently she lived in the Narrows, and has never seen such luxury. When I asked her why she worked so far away she told me the café had been her mothers dream.

One thing that I'm really worried about is the fact that the news has spread a rumor about a new billionaire somewhere in Gotham. They didn't know any detail on who it was but I knew. Oh did I know.

How they even found out about it I had no clue. Apparently banks just aren't trustworthy these days.

When Lyra had commented on who the billion at could have possibly been I had loudly shushed her and dragged her into the back room. I told her she couldn't tell anybody, and when I saw her eyes widen with comprehension I realized that she hadn't known that it was me in the first place.

Lyra had then declared that the café would be closed the next day, and instead she would meet me at my place so we could go shopping.

True to her word the café was closed and we spent our entire day shopping at the Gotham City mall. It was mostly just Lyra doing the shopping and dragging me along with her. The best part of my day was that I finally got my dream of having a pair of pants and a shirt in every color of the rainbow. All of the other clothes were something Lyra had deemed "cute" or "adorable" and threw it into my arms to buy.

I've never seen so much makeup, and when I asked Lyra why she needed all of it she gave me a weird look, "It's for you too. How could it be mine when that foundation is definitely your color." At the time I had tried to tell her I didn't wear makeup, but she ignored me.

The next thing we raided was the electronics store. By this time my arms felt like they were about to fall off from the amount of bags holding them down. I know I've always wanted to go home after a shopping trip with my arms filled with bags, but now that I've experienced it I've decided once is enough.

Before leaving the store we bought an Xbox, a Wii, and a Play Station. For each system we got about ten games. Lyra also believed I needed a phone so we got some small slide phone.

When we left the mall I shoved half of the bags into Lyra's arms, and I groaned happily at the relief my arms felt after they were gone.

I never realized how far away my home was until then. We were still only about halfway there when I felt like dropping. The term "shop till you drop" is too true.

It felt like forever until we finally made it back to my place. We were worried the elevator would break from all of the weight holding us down, but thankfully it was able to make the ride all the way up to the top floor where my penthouse was.

I asked Lyra to sleep over and she happily accepted. All of the bags with electronics were placed in the living room while I put the rest on my bedroom floor to be sorted out in the morning.

On said morning we slept in and I ordered some room service for breakfast. It seems the next time I go out shopping I'll need to buy some food and other utensils like plates, silverware, and things to cook with.

It was late in the afternoon when we finally made it to the café. We unlocked the door and flipped the closed sign to open before putting on our usual get up of an apron and cap.

Throughout the day I stood behind the cash register fiddling with my phone. It definitely wasn't as advanced as the phones from where I was from, but it was just as confusing. Lyra seemed to think my struggle was amusing, and my glare made her chuckle.

By the end of the day we had only had a few customers. I was the only one in the café because Lyra had to leave early so she could make a stop at the grocery store.

The sign on the door signaled that we were closed, and I went into the back room to lock the back door. While I was back there I heard something in the front, and my magic picked up on an unfamiliar presence. Unfortunately my magic could never pick up on who the person is, and I hoped it was Lyra.

Slowly stalking towards the door separating me from the front I peeked through the small square window and looked out into the café. At first I didn't see anything, and I was about to pull open the door when it was suddenly opened on its own.

I jumped in surprised and looked up to see the black, white, and red face that's been plastered all over the news. The last time I saw him was when I was in my other form, and he took my advice and got a new suit.

I stood there gaping at him for who knows how long, and I realized that I was Sara Davis right now. Not the magic wielding woman with half of her face tattooed, no, I was the cashier for a café. Instead of feeling fear like most of the people in this city, I only felt worry. I've faced a lot of dangerous people in my life, and he wasn't any different.

"What–you–who?! What are you doing here?!"

The Joker licked at his scars, "Funny. I, ah, thought this place would be…empty."

I put my hands on my hips, "Well you were wrong. Now what are you doing here?"

He continued to stare at me. His eyes traveled over my entire body until the stopped at my eyes. He seemed to be looking for something, and when he didn't find it he pouted, "You're not afraid."

"Yeah well the night is still young."

After a beat of silence the Joker suddenly started shrieking with laughter. It occasionally changed in pitch, and it reminded me of nails grating over a chalkboard.

"Ho! Tha_t_ was a good one sweet_cheeks_." He thankfully stopped laughing and continued to stare at me. "You wanna know how I got these _scars_?"

Before I could react he had me pinned up against the wall with a knife resting at the corner of my mouth. I struggled to get my jaw out of his grip, but it was useless. Instead I allowed him to push the knife into my mouth. When it was far enough in I bit down on the blade and forced my head to the side, dragging the knife with me.

Before he could make a grab for the knife I spat it out onto the floor and out of reach. His grip on my jaw tightened and I winced, knowing there would most likely be a bruise there tomorrow. "No need to be so feisty sweetcheeks."

We were interrupted by a loud banging in the front of the café. Somebody had forced open the door, causing it to bang against the wall.

Both of us looked at the door separating us from the front, and I felt Jokers grip on my jaw loosen. I placed both of my hands onto his shoulders and forcefully pushed him away from me.

I stood in front of the door and straightened out my apron and cap.

"And, uh, _where_ do you think _you're_ going?"

My eyes flicked over to the Joker before going back to the door, "If I die its your fault." Rolling my shoulders and tilting my head until it cracked I strode up to the door and fling it open.

"Who's the–What is going on here?!"

When I had burst in I had fully expected some slime ball robber, but instead I was greeted with a group of cops snooping around the tables. "If you guys are looking for a good doughnut you've come to the wrong place," I snapped.

I could have sworn a strangled chuckle came from the room behind me. The thought of causing the Joker to laugh made a smile tug at my lips, but I pressed the urge down.

One of the cops cleared their throats and stepped up to me. He had glasses, light brown hair, and a matching mustache. "I'm Lieutenant James Gordon of the Gotham police department. I'm hoping I could ask you a few questions."

"Sure. So long as you tell me why you and your men are _raiding_ my café." My arms were crossed and I waited for him to start talking. This might just be _the_ Gordon from the Batman movies, but that doesn't mean I'm happy to see him. Of course my irritation with the Joker and the cops in the café could be why I'm not a happy camper.

"I am sorry for barging in here–along with my men. We were chasing after the Joker and lost sight of him near your café. Did you happen to see him?"

I immediately shook my head, "I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I'm afraid I haven't. If I did I would have told you already. That or you would have found me on the ground with a smile carved into my face."

Gordon didn't appear to appreciate my dry humor but he nodded anyway. "I'm sorry to have disturbed you tonight Miss…?"

"Sara Davis."

He nodded and whistled sharply to gain his men's attention. They all quickly filed out, and before Gordon closed the door I called his name, "Gordon! If it's any consolation I hope you find him."

A small smile tugged at his lips, "I hope so too," and with that he shut the door.

I sighed in relief that they left without searching the back room. "Okay you can come out now!"

I waited for him to come through the door, but he didn't. I tried calling again but still nothing. Furrowing my brows I quickly strode over to the door and pushed it open.

Looking around the small kitchen where we baked all of our pastries the Joker was nowhere in sight. The only thing that caught my attention was a knife lodged into the metal island.

Taking one more glance around I walked over to the knife and wiggled it from side to side before it was finally free. Examining the knife I admitted that it was a good blade before tucking it into my back pocket. Having the familiar feeling of a knife in my pocket made a smile cross my face.

Reaching down I plucked up the joker card that had been stabbed into the table. Holding it between my first two fingers I turned it over to see a message had been messily scribbled onto the back.

_"See u soon –J"_

Biting the inside of my cheek I tucked that into my back pocket as well. Keeping my mind off of the card and knife in my pocket I saw the back door was unlocked again so I re-locked it.

With one last look around the room I shut off the lights on the kitchen, and then the lights, allowing the café to fall into darkness.


	6. Chapter 6

It was useless. Every time I would lay down and try to fall asleep some small noise would come from the streets, or even on some floor below me, and I would bolt upright into a sitting position with one hand holding the covers protectively to my chest and my other hand poised towards my bedroom door with my magic ready to use just beneath my skin. Apparently the Jokers visit affected me more than I thought.

It must have been around the tenth time I've been startled into sitting up when I decided to just fuck it and get out of bed. I wasn't about to get any sleep anyway.

I was now leisurely walking across the rooftops of the Narrows in my usual garb of black cargo pants, turtleneck, and trench coat. My raven locks were parted to the right to show off the tattooed teeth and muscles on my face.

Throughout the entire night I've managed to stop some poor woman from getting mugged. Her pleas for help were rather loud and I waited for Batman to heroically show up and save the day, but he didn't come.

I was still uneasy about the whole saving-lives thing, but I was still able to deliver a swift punch to the muggers jaw and kick him in the groin. It must have been one hell of a kick because he threw up all over my shoes. I easily cleaned it away with a flick of my fingers.

As he groaned in pain I looked over at the terrified woman who was clutching her purse to her chest. "Who are you?"

I tilted my head as I pondered her question, "I don't know."

Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion and she licked her dry lips, "How can you not know?"

"I was never told," and with that I faded out of sight. I was still there but I was just turned myself invisible.

Seeing the disbelief in the woman's face almost made me laugh out loud, but I forced it away as I watched her quickly scramble away from the man still groaning on the ground.

When she was no longer in sight I cancelled the magic making me invisible and gazed down at the prone man. "What am I gonna do with you?" I mumbled to myself.

"Send him to Gordon."

Carefully concealing my jump of surprise I turned to see Batman watching me from the shadows. "Gordon?"

"Lieutenant James Gordon of Gotham police department."

"Oh." I nodded my head. _As if I didn't already know who he was. I talked to him like four hours ago._ "You want me to just walk up to the police station? You do realize they would probably just blame me for attacking him right?"

"Not if you use that invisibility trick of yours."

I opened my mouth but decided against denying the "invisibility trick", "I would really rather not go anywhere near the police, thanks." The man on the ground was slowly getting into a sitting position when he spotted Batman. He paled drastically before feinting. A strangled snort escaped me.

Batman swooped over and easily threw the man over his shoulder, "Follow me."

A grappling hook shot from his belt and he flew up to one of the surrounding rooftops. After a beat of hesitation I decided I would follow him.

With a burst of magic I shot up from the ground and tumbled onto the roof. I couldn't fly, but I could make myself shoot high up into the air.

I kept a couple yards of distance between me and Batman, and even then I sometimes lost sight of him. Without my magic telling me where he was I would have lost him ages ago.

Batman suddenly stopped and set the unconscious man on the roof we were currently standing on. He pulled a roll of ductape from his belt and started wrapping it around the guys wrists, and then his mouth before slapping a strip over his mouth. He picked him up again and ducked into a window of some building, and after a moment he flew back out–only now he no longer had a body thrown over his shoulder.

That fact didn't last long however, because he charged towards me and before I could react he had an arm wrapped around my waist and I was hoisted over his shoulder. The breath was knocked out of me as his shoulder dug into my gut.

Batman easily carried me across the rooftops, and I knew I could have easily gotten out of his grip, but I decided to be a good little hostage and allowed him to carry me around like a sack of potatoes.

Soon I felt myself going airborne and I looked down to see we weren't jumping from roof to roof, but from roof to ground. I braced myself for the jarring impact, but I lost my breath again when his shoulder dug even harder into my stomach. "Good lord put me down," I wheezed.

Thankfully Batman listened to my request and none too gently dropped me onto the ground. I grunted upon impact and squinted up at him, "Jesus B, you'd think you're mad at me or something."

He growled and roughly pulled me up from the ground of the alley we were in and slammed me against the brick wall of the building next to us, "Who are you?"

I groaned, both from the impact and annoyance, "Why does everybody keep asking me that?"

His arm started pushing into my throat, partially restricting my breathing, "Who are you?!"

I coughed, "Calm down B. Just like I've already told you and everybody else who asks, I. Don't. Know."

"That's not an answer!"

_Damn he's getting pissed_, "What's it to you anyway, huh? Why do you want to know?"

"The other night you told me to pass on a message. Why?"

"Maybe I just wanted you to give a nice message from me to your hard working bu–" my sentence was cut short as his arm pressed harder against my neck, causing me to choke.

"Answer my question, who are you!" He seemed to realized his restricting grip and immediately let go.

I sagged to the ground and held a hand to my throat as I gagged. "I," my breath got caught in my throat and I cleared it away, "I already told you that I don't know. Is it so hard for you to believe that I've grown up without knowing who I am?"

Batman didn't say anything as he stood towering over me. "Look B," I used the wall for support as I struggled to my feet, "I know it's hard to believe me when I say I don't know who I am. Trust me, if I was in your shoes I wouldn't believe me either. But the thing is I'm literally nobody. You could test my DNA but you wouldn't find anything, and you know why? Because I don't exist. I'm nobody. Nothing."

We stood staring at each other in silence until Batman finally finished analyzing my sentence, "But you still have a past. That makes you somebody."

I shook my head with a sad smile, "Not if I grew up without a name. Without family or friends. Without something in my entire existence that would give it any real meaning."

Batman's shoulders dropped the tiniest bit, "Who are you." Gone was the demanding tone and threatening stance. His voice had even gone a bit softer.

"I don't think anybody will ever know. Not even myself."

I thought the conversation would have ended there and Batman would do his usual disappearing act, but he didn't, "I could help you find out."

Hope surged through me, but it bled away as fast as it came, leaving a cold, empty feeling behind. "You can't help me B. Nobody can. Even if you could you still wouldn't find anything. The people who had me–ever since I was born mind you–they never gave me a name, and the only file they had on me were destroyed. By all means I shouldn't exist."

Batman stared at me before giving a sharp nod. I smirked because I knew he would just go to his Batcave and try to find something on me, but he wouldn't find anything. My story about my files being destroyed were obviously true, I just left out the fact I'm from another dimension.

"How did you find out who I am?"

His gravely voice brought me out of my thoughts, "Well it wasn't that hard really. I just knew where to look." _Yeah, the Batman movies._

Batman growled–obviously not pleased with my answer–but before he could say anything I held up a hand for him to be quiet. My orange eyes peered into the darkness, trying to find the presence my magic was informing me about.

"Who else have you told?"

I gave a growl of annoyance and hissed out, "What?"

"About my identity."

I huffed an incredulous breath. Even after I just gave him the universal sign to shut up, he goes and asks about whether or not I've told anyone his biggest secret. Maybe I should have said something about the presence I could feel because now they know that I know Batman's identity.

I heard a click come from further down the alley, and on instinct I got in front of Batman and thrust my arm out.

Shots immediately sounded throughout the alley, but instead of hitting their marks the bullets ricochet off of a blue transparent shield–like the one I had used in the bank to keep the grenade from blowing everything up.

After a few moments the bullets stopped their assault and I was left standing with my arm held out and my shield fading back into invisibility. It only glowed blue when something hit it.

Glancing behind me I realized Batman was no longer here, and after taking one last glance down the dark alley I used my magic to fly me onto the nearest roof.

With my magic no longer picking up on the strangers presence I rubbed my face with both hands before dropping my arms to my sides. With exhaustion slowly creeping up on me I decided I've had enough excitement for the night and headed home. Hopefully this time I would be able to fall asleep.

* * *

The tension in the room was high, and steadily growing higher.

The man dressed up in his new purple suit tauntingly pulled at the strings attached to the bombs lined up in his jacket. Every other man in the room scrambled out of their chairs and tried backing away from the madman, as if the distance between them would save their life if he decided to blow them all up.

One man bravely glared the clown down, "You think you can steal from us and just walk away?"

Whatever the madman's response would have been was cut short when a man in his early twenties burst into the room. Everybody's attention turned to the man, but he didn't even notice as he hunched over with his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath. Held tightly in his hand was a crinkled piece of paper.

The clown lowered his hand as he gazed at the newcomer with raised brows. His eye flicked over to the man thought he was intimidating, "Is he ah…is he **_yours_**?"

The man sneered at the clown before looking back at the panting man, "What is it?!"

Taking a deep breath the newcomer stood up straight and sent an uneasy look at the clown before looking at his boss, "Gambol sir, I was out last night and found something you wouldn't believe."

"Well what is it?" Gambol barked, quickly loosing his patience with everyone in the room.

"There's someone who knows the Batman's identity."

Shuffling immediately broke out in the room as everybody started muttering with their naught or about this new and impossible development.

His interest now peeked the clown tilted his head and ran his tongue over the inside of his cheeks, "And ah, just _**who**_ would this some_one_ be, **hm**?"

The newcomer nervously gazed at the clown. Everybody in Gotham new who this man was. His reputation was quickly growing, and everybody knew not to mess with the Joker unless they wanted a permanent smile. "Um, well, erm, I don't actually know–"

"What do you mean you don't know?!"

He jumped at his boss' demanding tone. The Jokers eyebrows raised as he watched the kids actions. The boy obviously wasn't cut out for this kind of job. He was too squeamish, and he knew the squealers when he saw them.

The newcomer fumbled for a response, "Well it was dark, and I was going through an alleyway when I saw Batman talking to some girl. They must have heard me because the person he was talking to told him to be quiet, and she looked down the alley for me. I heard him ask how she knew his identity, and that was when I shot at them."

"You shot them?"

He relaxed when he saw his boss wasn't yelling as much, "Not exactly. She stepped in front of him and each time I shot the bucket would just get deflected to the side by some blue shield thing. I um, stopped shooting and took this before getting away."

Cautiously walking up to the table he practically shook with nerves as both his boss and the Joker leaned over his shoulders to get a look at the picture he smoothed out over the table.

It was definitely dark, but there was an unmistakable figure standing in the middle of an alley. Shadows covered one half of her face, but in the dim moonlight it was possible to see she had an arm extended in front of her, and her orange eyes glared into the camera.

There was a pause before uncontrollable giggles burst out of the clown. He swiped the picture and held it close to his face. "It seems my little _Witch_ has more **secrets** then I though**_t_**, hehe." Folding up the picture he stuffed it inside of his coat.

"Im putting the word out, whoever brings that girl to me will get six hundred grand, and make sure she's alive. As for this clown, five hundred grand dead, a million alive so I can teach him some manners first."

The Joker opened his jacket, reminding everyone just who was in control here, and he teasingly pulled on the string attached to the explosives underneath. "Alright, so, why don't you give me a call when you want to start taking things a little, _more_, _**seriously**_." He reached into his back pocket and held up a joker card, "Here's. My. Card." He slapped it onto the table and slid it forward before he started backing out of the room. Not once did he turn his back, and he kicked the door open behind him and shuffled out of sight.


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: Batman is not mine in any way shape or form. You probably already knew that, but I have to tell you anyway.**

* * *

Furiously striding down the sidewalk I wasn't paying attention to where I was going, and was instead digging around in the completely useless purse Lyra had forced me to buy. The only things I had in there were my phone, my credit card, and the key to my penthouse. Apparently that was enough to warrant the use of a purse.

The cause of my rush was because I had overslept and was now fifteen minutes late for work, and I wasn't even halfway to the café yet.

When my hand brushed against the smooth surface of my phone I pulled it out to reveal I had several missed calls from Lyra.

Punching in her number I held the phone up to my ear, and after the first few rings the phone was answered by a rather upset blonde, _"Sara is that you?"_

"Yeah it's me. Look, listen, I just–"

_"What is the matter with you?! I've been calling you all morning, and not once did you answer me!"_

"I know, I know! I'm sorry I was just–"

_"Just what?"_

Before I could answer my body rammed into something that felt similar to a brick wall. Thankfully I kept my balance and didn't fall to the ground, but my phone–along with the "walls" coffee–fell to the ground.

"Oh my gosh I'm so sorry! I should have been paying attention to where I was going! Oh I'm so stupid! Don't worry though I'll get you another coffee. I work at a café you know–" and now I was rambling.

Someone in front of me chuckled, and I forced myself to stop talking. Trailing my eyes up the expensive looking suit I looked at the baby blue eyes of the stranger I rammed into.

"That is quite alright miss. I wasn't watching where I was going either." He gave me a crooked smirk.

"Well at least let me buy you another coffee."

The man shook his head, "I'm afraid I can't. I'm late as it is."

"Oh well then it doesn't matter," I picked my phone up from the ground with one hand, and latched onto his arm with the other. "I'm late for work myself. We can be late together."

Despite his protests he didn't make a single move to pull his arm from my grasp, even though I could feel the muscles under his shirt telling me how easily he could do it if he wanted to.

Looking down at my phone I realized it was still mid-call with Lyra. I brought it up to my ear, and the closer it got the louder I could hear her shouts, _"Ohmygod! Sara! SARA ANSWER THE PHONE! ARE YOU IN DANGER?! SOMEONE KIDNAPPED YOU DIDNT THEY!"_

"LYRA," the sound of my voice yelling her name stopped her, "could you tell any louder? I don't think China quite heard you."

The man snorted with laughter, and my own smile tugged at my lips before she was at it again,_ "What happened to you? One minute we were talking, and the next I hear you gasp before your no longer in the phone. I thought something terrible happened!"_

"Don't be silly Lyra nothing bad happened. Well," I grimaced and looked at the man apologetically, "unless you count ramming into someone, and making them spill their coffee bad then yeah, something bad happened."

Lyra gasped, _"You spilled their coffee?!"_

Naturally because Lyra ran a café and was a coffee addict herself she made it sound like a crime, "Yes I spilled his coffee."

_"Oh it was a he?"_ Leave it to Lyra to go from the unholy deed of spilling coffee to focus on the fact it was a guy, _"Was he cute?"_

Looking back at where the guy was trailing behind me, I could tell from the twinkle in his eyes that he most likely heard what Lyra had said, and was looking at me expectantly, "Maybe not cute," he narrowed his eyes at me, "I think handsome would better describe his looks." And it was true. His slick black hair, defined features, and baby blue eyes would make any girl want to date him.

I had a small hunch as to who he was, but I didn't say anything that would give away the fact that I know.

I sent the man a small wink before turning away to allow my blush to unfold. Me and flirting just didn't go together.

Lyra squealed on the other end of the phone, _"Oh my gosh what was his name."_

I opened my mouth to answer her, but I couldn't give a definite answer, "You know what I didn't ask. Hold on," pulling the phone away from my face I sent him a small smile, "I guess it would be fair to introduce myself first. I'm Sara Davis."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Sara," he sent me a charming smile that probably made most women swoon, and made my knees slightly weak. _Pull yourself together Sara._ "I'm Bruce."

_Smart. Withholding his last name in case I don't actually know who he is,_ "It's wonderful to meet you Bruce. To bad it wasn't on better terms." I was referring to the coffee incident.

"That's quite alright."

"His name is Bruce."

_"Oh that's a nice name."_

"Yes it is, now," I looked at the streets around me, "I'm almost at the café, I'll talk to you when we get there."

_"We?"_ I didn't answer her question as I ended the call.

"So Bruce tell me, how do you like your coffee." I looked at him expectantly.

"Black, no cream, one sugar."

I scrunched my nose at him, "Isn't that bitter?"

"Yes it is," thankfully he was just amused by my observation. "and what about you?"

"Me? Oh no I don't like coffee all that much."

Bruce started chuckling and I looked at him with a confused smile, "What?"

"Nothing it's just–you work at a café, yet you don't like coffee."

"Cafés sell more than just coffee you know."

He consented, "That is true, they do sell other things."

By now we had finally made it to the café, and when I stepped in I waved to a few of our regular customers before Lyra finally noticed me. "Finally! I thought you had gotten lost or something!"

I gave her a deadpan look, "I walk here everyday."

She shrugged, "You never know." Lyra finally seemed to notice Bruce was standing right behind, and I could see her chest constrict from her sudden loss of breath. "You–You–Bruce–"

I decided to try and end her painful stuttering, "Oh you know Bruce?"

She gave me a funny look, "Everybody in Gotham knows who he is."

Understanding blossomed over my features, and I gave Bruce a satisfied smile, "So you're Bruce Wayne huh? I thought so, but I wasn't sure."

"You've been pulling Bruce Wayne down the city streets, and you didn't think to tell me."

By now we had the whole cafés attention, and when they realized Bruce Wayne was there a flurry of whispers and not-so-subtle looks were being passed around.

"I told you I ran into Bruce. Oh that reminds me," I looked at him, "I need to get your coffee."

I finally released his arm and went to go make his bitter coffee, when Lyra latched onto my own arm, "Um we need to talk first."

I looked into her eyes and saw fear and determination looking back at me. "Why what's wrong?"

"Just," she stopped and looked around the café uneasily. Lyra obviously didn't want to speak while so many people were able to listen in. Whatever she wanted to talk about was obviously grating on her nerves.

"Alright everybody!" I loudly clapped my hands together, and when I got everybody's attention I continued, "It seems something important has come up,many I need all of you to leave so we can close the café."

The people were looking at each other with confusion, wondering if I was actually serious.

"Come on people, let's get moving."

Still nobody moved.

"Get off your scrawny asses people and let's move! Go, go, go, go!" I walked towards the nearest table and pushed the occupants from their chairs.

Not wanting to get pushed out of their own chairs, people scrambled out of their seats and made for the door. Some grabbing their coffee's and some leaving them behind in their haste.

When the last person was out the door I shut it behind them, locked it, and flipped the sign to closed. "Alright Lyra," I turned to look at her with my hands in my hips, "what did you need?"

She sent one last uneasy glance at Bruce–who I hadn't realized was still there–before she tore into me, "Why didn't you tell me you were in league with the Joker?!"

I gaped stupidly before stuttering out, "What are you talking about?"

"Don't play dumb with me Sara, I saw everything!"

"What–saw what?" _What the hell could she have seen that would make her think I was in league with the _Joker_ of all people_.

"You didn't think I'd see it did you?" Lyra shook her head, "You know I've got cameras set up around here, and every once in awhile I'll check the footage, and do you know what I saw on their from a few nights ago?"

Thinking back, I tried to remember the night she was talking about when I remembered the Joker breaking into the café, and confronting me back in the kitchen. I groaned loudly and shoved my face into my hands, "No Lyra that wasn't–I'm not–," I growled in frustration, "You saw the entire tape right?" She nodded. "Then what gave you the idea I was working for him?"

"Because you didn't turn him into the cops!" she cried. "You helped him get away!"

That was a pretty good reason to suspect, "Lyra trust me, please, I'm not in any shape or form working for the Joker okay?" She still seemed skeptical so I confessed, "Do you know how hard it is for me to sleep at night, thinking he's going to waltz into my apartment and slice my throat while I'm sleeping?"

"You're…not sleeping?"

I sighed, and brought my hands up to wipe just below my eyes. I used magic to hide the dark bags that were slowly forming underneath, but they didn't need to know that, "It's amazing how much a little foundation can cover up."

Lyra gasped and walked closer to get a better look at my face. Bruce trailed behind her, but he kept a suspicious eye on me.

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"Why would I? There's not much you can do about it anyway."

"Maybe not, but you could have told _someone_ at least. Besides why are you so scared he'll come looking for you?"

Digging around my purse once more I looked for the joker card he had left behind, "You said you watched the video right? Then did you see what he was doing in the kitchen after I left?"

She shook her head and admitted, "I was focused on the camera that was showing what happened here in the front."

"Well the Joker," I finally found it next to my credit card, "left this behind." I held it up between two fingers, and held it out for her to take.

She looked at it with frightened eyes and read the message aloud, "'See you soon -J.' Oh my god Sara why didn't you say something?!" Lyra threw her arms around my neck and threatened to choke me with how tight her hug was.

Bruce came to my rescue and pried her arms from around my neck, "Sara," I looked into his kind blue eyes. The suspicion was gone, only to be replaced by worry, "you should have called the cops."

I snorted, "What are they gonna do about it? Put me in some sort of protection program?" I scoffed, "As if that would work. He probably has people in the police working for him, and they could just tell him my location."

Lyra looked close to tears, " There has to be something we can do."

I shook my head sadly, "I really don't think there's anything we can do. If the Joker is set on seeing me again then he probably will."

"Then why don't you come and live with me?" Lyra and I looked at Bruce in surprise, "My penthouse is one of the safest places in Gotham."

"See?" Lyra pointed at Bruce as if he was the answer to all of my problems, "You can live with Bruce."

But I shook my head, "I'm sorry Bruce, but I'll have to decline. If he really is going to see me again then I don't want to put you in any danger." Walking behind the counter I turned on the coffee machine, and watched the slow trickle of black coffee fall into the pot.

"Sara we can't just do nothing." Lyra joined followed me over to the rack where my apron was hung up.

"Lyra can we please just drop it?" I reached around to tie the apron, but someone beat me to it. Looking over my shoulder I saw Bruce was the culprit, "Thank you."

"Lyra's right Sara, you need to tell someone about this and get some help."

"I told you guys didn't I?" I snorted, "Didn't do much help." I walked over to the stacks of foam coffee cups, grabbed a lid, and poured some of the coffee I had made into the cup, "I'm serious you guys just drop it." Ripping open a packet of sugar I poured it into the coffee and stirred it before pushing on the lid and setting it onto the counter, "Here's your coffee Bruce."

He grabbed the cup, but I could tell he wasn't in any mod to drink it.

"Maybe we can get Batman to help you."

A strangled snort escaped me, and it took a conscious effort on my part not to look at Bruce, "Batman? And how do you suppose we get a hold of him? Hm?" It was kind of funny how we were talking about getting Batman when he was standing right next to us. How Bruce doesn't crack up laughing when people talk about his other half, I'll never know.

"We could erm, you know…"

"If you're thinking about walking around the Narrows in the dead of night to find some trouble then you can stop right there." Lyra stopped talking and I knew that's exactly what she was about to propose, "Lyra we can't just walk around and wait to get either mugged, raped, or killed. For all we know Batman would be busy on the other side of the city. We could get in some serious trouble. Like we won't see the light of the neck to morning trouble."

Bruce nodded along with what I was saying, "Sara is right. You can't just walk around the Narrows, it's too dangerous."

"Not to mention the Joker could find us first," I mumbled it, but they heard me anyway.

"Then what about that Ghost character?"

Word spread around Gotham that there was another vigilante character running around the streets. Every account told by the people I had saved said I appeared out of nowhere, and after I either killed or knocked out their attacker I would just disappear. The newspapers took that piece of information and called me The Ghost. It was nice to have a name for that side of me, but now everybody knows that I'm not afraid to kill someone, and most want me to be sent to Arkham or Black Gate while others think I'm doing the streets of Gotham a favor by getting rid of the offenders for good.

"We have a better chance of finding Batman then the Ghost." Lyra seemed to deflate at the truth in my statement. "Look you guys your concern is touching, but I'm afraid I'm on my own on this. Besides I can take care of myself."

"But your having trouble sleeping–"

"Lyra just because I know I can take care of myself doesn't mean I'm not afraid." Why wouldn't I be afraid? The Joker could easily kill me without a second thought, and the only way to keep him from doing that would be to reveal that I'm the Ghost. Nothing good could come out of that.

"Well then how about I ease your mind for part of tomorrow night?"

I gave Bruce a funny look so he elaborated, "I'm throwing a fundraiser tomorrow night. I'd like for you to come. Lyra can come too of course." He added the last sentence as a second thought, but she didn't seem to notice.

"Oh my gosh of course we'll come!"

"Well actually–"

"You better stop talking right now Sara before I tape your mouth shut." My mouth snapped closed and I narrowed my eyes at her. "Good," she looked at Bruce, "We would be delighted to come."

I could see the amusement in his eyes, and i knew that he knew I was going to decline his invitation. "I hope to see you there," and with that he strode out of the café into the bust streets of Gotham.

"Oh!" I looked at Lyra, "We need to go dress shopping."

An unhappy groan made its way passed my lips, but I allowed her to drag me out of the store because I knew she was right and we needed to go out and some fancy thousand dollar dress. Well…I was going to buy the dress while Lyra looked for whatever she wanted.


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: You all know I don't own batman, do I really have to say it?**

* * *

Dress shopping with Lyra did little to take my mind off of my Joker problem. I was usually able to push those thoughts to the back of my mind throughout the day–only for them to consume my dreams. It didn't help that Lyra seemed to notice my change in moods.

She constantly tried to keep me in conversation, but I only seemed to be able to reply with grunts and nods. Eventually she gave up, but that was only because she saw an "adorable" dress in one of the store windows.

Lyra forced me to sit down on one of the chairs across form the fitting rooms while she tried on the red number.

When she came out to show off the dress I had to admit it looked really good on her. The floor-length ball gown was strapless, with a sweetheart neckline and a slit starting from her lower waist, showing off her long legs.

"Wow Lyra," I stood up from the chair and joined her by the mirror, "it looks amazing!"

"Doesn't it?" She seemed to be in her own little world where it was just her and the red dress, "It really hugs my curves don't you think? And it's only two hundred dollars!"

You'd think _she_ was the billionaire instead of me, with the rate she spends my money, "Are you gonna get it?"

Lyra looked scandalized, "Of course! Now all I need is a pair of heels and I'm good to go!" She gave me an evil look through the mirror, "And now it's your turn to find a dress."

After Lyra shoved me into the fitting room she threw dress after dress over the door for me to try on. The colors ranged from red to black, and not one had the same style as another.

After trying on all of the different dresses Lyra helped me narrow down what type of dress looked the best on me. So far the dress I needed to get had to be sleeveless, and green.

If I didn't have Lyra shopping with me I probably would have gotten something black with simple heels and left the store.

It wasn't until one of the store assistants came over to help that we finally found the perfect dress.

It was a strapless emerald gown, with a sweetheart neckline similar to Lyras. There was a black beaded design covering the left breast, and the rushed design continued to my thighs, where the dress broke off into a flow of fabric with a slit in the front.

"Oh Sara, you look beautiful. And here I thought I'd never get to see you in a dress!"

I sent her a playful glare, "Shut up."

It took us another twenty minutes before we each found a pair of heels. Lyra found a pair of silver heals with a diamond studded strap to go around her ankle, and another, thicker strap, to go over her toes.

I wanted a simple pair of black heels, but Lyra wasn't having any of that, so she found another pair of black heels that had diamond studded straps winding their way up my foot to wrap around the base of my ankle so they wouldn't fall off.

We called for a taxi, and had it drive us towards my penthouse. As we got closer to my building I could feel Lyra start tensing beside me. I turned to ask her what was wrong, but when I saw the worry in her eyes I realized she was scared for me.

"Lyra there's nothing for you to worry about." I reached over and squeezed her hand, to which she gratefully squeezed back.

"You can always come with me to my place, Sara. You know I would much rather you stay with me then suffer alone."

The taxi pulled up in front of my building, and I handed him forty dollars to pay the fair and as a tip. "Don't worry about me too much Lyra." I grabbed her shopping bags to take up to my place. We had made a plan to get ready together, and since my place had more space we would do it there.

Shutting the taxi door behind me I watched it drive off until it was out of sight. When I entered the building I sent Barry (the man at the front desk) a smile. He was a pretty nice guy, almost overly so, but I didn't want to be mean and just ignore him.

Ha! That's rich coming from me, considering my not-so-nice activities as The Ghost.

Discreetly rushing towards the elevator, I took out my key card and roughly pushed the button to go to the upper floors. I always rushed through the lobby because I was worried Barry would call me over for a conversation.

The elevator doors closed behind me, and I stuck my key card into the slot right next to the number 69.

The ride up to my home felt longer than it really was, but when the elevator doors finally binged open I breathed a sigh of relief.

I flicked on the switch, and light instantly flooded the penthouse. Walking down the fountain the separated the living room and the kitchen, I almost made it to the hallway that led to my bedroom when a black mass made itself known in the corner of my eye.

All of the breath left my body in a rush of fear, and all of the bags I was holding fell from my numb fingers. The mass had yet to move, and I prayed that there was really nothing there and all of this was just my imagination.

Against all of my screaming instincts telling me to run, I slowly turned to see what the mass was.

As the mass started gaining more detail I was relieved to note that it was not, in fact, the Joker, but instead it was someone I've run into as The Ghost many times.

"Batman," the fear slowly left my body, making me feel drained, "what are you doing here?" I looked around, "How did you get here?"

Of course he completely ignored my last question, but more or less answered the first one, "The Joker is after you."

I spluttered, "What? How did you know–?" When I realized just who I was asking I shut my mouth. Of course he would know of my worries about the Joker. I told him a couple hours ago, he just wasn't in uniform.

"I have a good source." His gravely voice echoed through the room.

A snort threatened to escape me, but I held it back, "Look, if you thought your presence would make me feel better you were wrong. If anything it's made me feel even more uneasy." It was the truth. I was on the sixty-ninth floor with windows that didn't open. If Batman could get up here, then so could the Joker.

"Why is the Joker after you."

_He's a lot more straightforward when he's Batman_, "I don't know, but if I ever find out I'll be sure to let you know."

"You didn't turn him into the police, why?"

"Ugh," I turned away from him and started walking towards my bedroom door. "I just didn't." In all honesty I had no idea why I didn't turn him in.

"There must have been a reason." Batman followed me to my room and stood in the doorway.

I was in my closet hanging up the dresses, and putting our heels on the floor, "You want me to be honest?" I stuck my head outside my closet and looked at his intimidating form.

He didn't give me an answer, but his hard stare was enough of a yes for me to continue, "It never crossed my mind."

"I find that hard to believe." He was glaring at me, "Anyone else would have jumped at the chance to turn in a mass murderer unless," his eyes narrowed, "he threatened you."

"No, no, no, he didn't threaten me. Well except at first, but that was before the police got there. Didn't you watch the tapes?" Bruce Wayne was the most influential person in Gotham, and there's no doubt he could have just hacked into the café's cameras with a tech savvy I can only dream of having.

"I'd rather hear what happened from you."

I grunted, "It wasn't anything great alright? I was in the back when he came in. He pushed me against the wall, and stuck his knife in my mouth–no doubt he was going to kill me. Not ready to die I but down on the blade and wrenched it out of his grip before spitting it out of reach. After that the cops burst in, surprising the both of us. It was enough for him to loosen his grip and I pushed him away.

"I will tell you right now that I'm not the biggest fan of the police, so to see them stalking around the café made me irritated. Telling them the Joker was there hadn't crossed my mind."

"Gordon asked if you had seen him, yet you denied it."

"This is true," I consented. He had asked me if I saw the Joker, and yet I still didn't turn him in, "I was give the opportunity to do it, but for whatever reason I didn't take it."

"Well," I sighed to myself, "at least he's hot."

"What?" Batman a voice was sharp.

"Oh come on, he is!" I threw my hands up, "Whatever. I have my opinions, you have yours."

Going back into my closet I situated our heels beneath their respective dresses, "Look I don't–and your gone." When I left my closet and looked at the doorway, I found it empty of any vigilantes. "How does he do that?"

Returning to my closet for a third time, I began getting ready for bed when I stopped upon realizing something, "There's no way I'm going to fall asleep now." Pushing my magic to the surface of my skin, I felt the hair on the left side of my scalp shrivel away. I pushed the remaining hair over to the right, and instinctually knew my tattoo had become visible.

Pushing my magic farther out I made to change my clothes into my usual black attire when I felt something out of place. My magic searched the apartment to find tiny pieces of technology set up all over the apartment.

_That bastard._ Taking a deep breath, I tried to rationalize why he would do that. _He obviously did it to watch me, but seeing as it's unlikely he knows I'm the Ghost then he did it to make sure Joker never got in._

Feeling a little better about the situation I moved onto the next problem, _How am I gonna get out?_

I couldn't just put up an illusion of me sleeping because he knows I'm having a bout of insomnia. If I were to sleep through the night that would be rather suspicious, especially since I told him his presence didn't help with my situation.

Without much of an option I infiltrated the cameras with my magic, and waited until each one fizzed offline. For all I know Bruce could just charge them back up from his cave had I just drained the battery, so breaking them was the better option for now.

I looked up at the ceiling of my closet and found a string dangling from a trap door. When I pulled it, the door opened to reveal the night sky, _This is one way he could have gotten in. But then how'd he get out?_

Deciding not to think about it I used my magic to gently raise me out of the closet and onto the roof of the building. With my apartment on the top floor nobody else seemed to have access to the roof.

Not that anyone would. There really wasn't anything up here except for a few generators that probably worked a few of the mechanisms of the building–like the elevator.

Walking to the very edge of the building I looked down to see several cars still driving about on the streets. Thankfully I wasn't afraid of heights or else I most likely would have fainted.

Switching my gaze from the ground and onto the dilapidated buildings out in the Narrows I backed away from the ledge, and got into a crouched position before taking off into a sprint.

When only one foot was left touching the roof I pushed all of my magic into it, and when I pushed off there was the sound of rushing wind as my magic vaulted me off of one roof and onto another.


	9. Chapter 9

The beginning of my walk over the rooftops was fairly uneventful. There was one instance where I found some shady guys hanging out around some car. Turns Inge of the guys was dealing drugs. I easily blasted the boys away from the car, burned the drugs, and left without a trace. There were too many men for me to bring to the police station all at once, so I left them.

The second problem I came across was a mugging. One man was pointing a gun at some teenager. Obviously the robber was fairly new at this because his gun hand was shaking. With my magic I made the gun explode in the robbers hand, and stunned him while he clutched the wound in pain.

When I jumped from the roof above the scene the kid was still there, and he was staring at me in wonder, "Your The Ghost."

My fire colored eyes coolly observed the teenager, "Indeed."

"Are," the teen swallowed thickly and looked between me and his attacker, "Are you gonna kill him?"

I tilted my head, "Not if you don't want me to." I hadn't planned to kill the attacker. He was probably just desperate for money. Desperation can drive you to do terrible things sometimes.

The teen pleaded with me, "Please don't."

Picking up the mans wrists I brought them behind his back and made a metal bar appear out of nowhere to bind them together. A piece of duck tape was place over his mouth, and I turned to the teen, "Call the police. They'll take care of it." With a blast of magic I was vaulted back onto the rooftops.

The rest of the night was fairly quiet. A little worrying for a place like the Narrows, but I wasn't about to complain. Most likely the silence was Batman's doing. The signal had been lit earlier that night. No doubt scaring any potential criminals back into their seedy hiding places.

My body was finally getting tired from constantly jumping from one roof to the next. I'd finally decided it was time to head back to my apartment. I needed to get as much rest as I could to prepare for later the next night. It was Bruce's fundraiser he'd invited Lyra and I to attend. Still didn't want to go, but Lyra accepted, and I wasn't going to let her down.

A quiet scuffle sounded in the alley just in front of me, and I looked down just in time to see three men shoving another against the rough brick wall of the building I was standing on.

The man who'd shoved the other against the wall pressed the nozzle of his gun against his victims forehead, "There's a price on her head clown boy."

"Clown boy" released a series of high-pitched giggles that had the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. I knew who those giggles belonged to, and the name clown boy was also a pretty good indicator.

"Oh? And, uh, what are _you_ gonna **_do_** about it? _Hmm_?" The question was accompanied by unnerving cackles.

The Jokers laughing obviously unnerved the three men holding him "hostage". I use the term lightly because there's no way these three have the upper hand.

Usually I would just walk the other way and let the Joker handle the situation, but the gun in the main guys hand unsettled me. Taking a deep breath I though of my next plan of action. Only…I had no plan.

Angling myself just right I hovered one leg over the alley, and after releasing a steady breath I jumped from the roof.

My body plummeted down the side of the three story building, and none of them knew of my presence until I landed on top of one of the men threatening The Joker. It wasn't the guy holding the gun, but it was one of his lackeys.

The jarring impact from me landing on top of the tense man made the both of us hit the ground with a terrible _crack_. I rolled to the side to absorbed some of the impact, and pushed myself onto my feet.

When I whipped around I saw the guy I landed on still on the ground. His back was bent at an odd angle, and I realized, from the way I landed on him, I had broken his spine.

I grimaced at the now dead man, "Sorry."

The gunman was looking at me with shock and anger, while the other was looking at his fallen comrade with horror. His face was turning and interesting shade of green, and I tilted my head at that. His reaction was so much different then the other mans.

"Would one of you like to tell me what is going on here?" My voice was soft. Dangerous.

The man with the gun sneered at me, "None of your business girlie. Now get lost!"

The Joker was looking at me with intrigue when his eyes sparked with recognition. He immediately started laughing hysterically, "Long time no, uh, _see_ toots." His laughing earned him a hit across the jaw with a gun.

"There's no need for violence," I held up my hand in a mocking gesture of peace, but with a simple jerk I had the gun tear from the mans hand and into my own.

His grip on The Joker loosened as he stumbled away from the both of us. His young friend was looking at me with visible terror, "Who are you?"

"Who do you think?" I'd become fairly popular nowadays.

"I know who you are," the other man growled. "You're that Ghost character!"

When I nodded the younger man grew pale. I couldn't help but wonder why he was here in the first place. This obviously wasn't his kind of work.

Joker was just happily standing on the sidelines, wondering how his little witch was going to handle the situation.

"There's a pretty price for your head too," the leaders eyes travelled up and down my body. Not in a leery way. More like he was sizing me up.

"A price?" I hadn't heard of this before, "Why?"

The mans lips were locked together. He obviously wasn't going to answer me, but his inexperienced friend had no problem blabbing, "Gambol's offering six hundred thousand to anyone who brings you to him."

"Gambol?" I furrowed my eyebrows at the familiar name, "That mob guy?" I tried thing of any possible reason for the mob to want me. I guess I was fairly dangerous, but they aren't asking for Batman.

The vigilantes name made my thoughts freeze. They didn't want Batman for anything, only dead. For them to do that they'd need to get extremely tough fighters, or go after the man behind the mask. An identity that I knew.

"Is the mob after me because of Batman?" From the blank looks I received the two men obviously didn't know why I was wanted, just that I was. However, The Jokers loud cackling confirmed my theory.

"What the actual fuck?!" My outburst startled the two men, though the older one hid it better. "How'd they even find out?" The night where Batman confronted me about my knowledge of my knowing his identity passed through my mind. There had been someone else there that night.

"It doesn't matter why he wants you girlie," the lead guy stepped forward while cracking his knuckles, trying to look tough, "just that he does."

I smirked condescendingly, "If you think I'll come easily," my hand was raised towards the man, "then you're stupider than I thought." With a slight push of my hand the man was roughly blown down the length of the alley way. His high pitched screams bounced across the walls, and it made me smile with amusement.

Closing my hand into a fist I turned it, then roughly pulled it towards me. The man I'd blown across the alley was dragged across the hard ground by his ankle.

I leisurely pulled on the invisible force wrapped around the mans ankle as if it were rope. His screams were becoming louder by the moment, and with one final tug he was brought to my feet.

"Your voice annoys me." Covering his mouth with my hand I closed my eyes for a few concentrated moments. When I opened my eyes I moved my hands away from his mouth to reveal his lipless face. I had used my magic to remove his mouth, and now it was just a blank expanse of skin. Any noise from his mouth was now muffled.

I frowned, "That's actually really creepy."

Reaching into one of my many pockets I rummaged around before pulling out one of my several switchblades. It must have been one of my newer ones because I didn't recognize it.

"Listen here bud," I placed the tip of the blade against his temple near his hairline, "I was just about to head back home when I look down to see you and your two buddies harassing this man," I jerked my head towards The Joker.

I pressed the blade deeper into the guys skin to see a bead of blood trail into his hair, "Had you been in another alley I wouldn't have even known you were here, and I'd be on my merry way. I could have been sleeping by now!" I started dragging the blade across the mans forehead, staying close to his hair.

His pleas went unheard now that he had no mouth to voice them.

"Of course I could have ignored what was going on. The Joker didn't need my help. He'd have killed you in an instant." The tip of the knife made it to the other temple, and I removed it from his skin. I set it on the ground beside me and shifted my position.

"I'm warning you now I've never done this before," with both of my hands I shoved the tips of my fingers into the cut I just made. The area where the mans mouth was started to stretch, and I could hear his muffled scream.

"There two ending to this," I began pulling the edges of the cut, "and neither of them are pleasant.

As my hands grew further and further, the cut I made grew deeper and deeper. The mans muffled screams were becoming louder and louder, but nobody but the four of us in the alley could hear him.

The corners of the cut reached deeper and deeper down the side of the mans face, and the more his skin resisted the harder I pulled.

Something gave way to the amount of pressure, and my hand suddenly ripped down the mans face, taking the layer of skin with it.

With the skin no longer there he mans mouth was open to the world, and his screams could easily be heard. I did nothing to stop them though, because I was too busy staring at such a grotesque sight.

You could see the mans teeth, and the cartilage from his nose. Half of the skin was missing from each cheek, and his eyes were much more prominent. The end of his skin was still attached to his chin while the other end was in my hand.

Blood seeped out of his face until yo couldn't tell what was skin and what wasn't. It took maybe two minutes before the mans screams dimmed into nothing. His whimpers lasted for another minute before he finally died from the pain, and blood loss.

Awkwardly laying the skin back over the mans face I stood up from the ground. I was left staring at the dead man, and wondered if I may have went a little overboard.

Delighted giggles sounded from the purple sited clown beside me, "That was _be-u-ti-ful_."

I sighed, _Yeah, too much._

A choked whimper sounded from my other side, and I looked at the young man still in the alley with us. I'd completely forgotten about him, "What are you still doing here kid?"

He was looking at me in absolute terror, and it sent a pang of guilt through my heart. I'd just scarred the guy for life.

"That was quite the show. They should start calling you the Wicked Witch," The Joker cackled merrily, and plucked the knife from my hand.

He advanced on the poor guy, and I would have stopped him, but he was too quick. Joker pounced on the kid and happily started stabbing him in the gut before slicing his cheeks into a forever smile.

With The Joker nicely distracted I started walking down the alley. I didn't want to be here any longer than I needed to be.

Unfortunately my escape was cut short by a calm voice from behind me, "Where did you get this?"

With slow movements I turned my head to see Joker standing above the dead kid with my knife gels loosely in his hand. He was examining it with a practiced eye. Twirling and flipping it from one hand to the other.

"I don't know."

"Oh?" He raised a brow at me, and my mind mentally raced to try and think of where I'd gotten the knife.

It wasn't anything special. Just a simple pocket knife with a black handle. Though, I hadn't gotten any new blades in a while. It's possible this one wasn't even mine. "Nope, sorry."

"This knife is, uh, _mine_," I swallowed nervously, "and I left it for a, certain, someone. I'd like to know _why, you,_ have it."

I remembered now. That was the knife The Joker had used to stab his card into the steel kitchen table. He'd left it behind for me. But not as The Ghost, as Sara Davis. To him there was no possibility for me to have obtained it.

"It was given to me," I said airily. "You can have it back if you'd like. I've got plenty more."

He chuckled darkly, "It was _given_ to you?" He 'hmm'd, "By who?"

"Nobody that concerns you," I belatedly realized that probably wasn't the best thing to say.

"Why would she have given it to _you_? Surely she would have given it back to, uh, _me_. After all I, uh, _told_ her I'd see her _soon_." Joker skid the handle into a pocket inside of his suit.

"Well you obviously didn't see her soon enough," I took a careful step back, only to have The Joker step forward. "Wow look at the time! Gotta go!" Spinning around I pushed off the ground so I could land on one of the rooftops.

Something grabbed onto my ankle, and the sudden weight prevented me from fully reaching the roof. My chest crashed against the edge of the roof, and I could already feel the bruise forming.

Groaning from the pain I heaved myself onto the roof, and, lo and behold, The Joker crawled up after me. He apparently grabbed onto my ankle mid-jump. The bastard.

"Jesus Christ, Joker, I could have broken something," his only response was a chuckle.

Standing up from the rooftop took some effort, but I eventually got both feet underneath me. He was still staring at me with danger radiating from his every pore.

"Look Joker," I held up my hands in a peaceful gesture, "she had the knife and she gave it to me. There was no reason for her to keep it." Talking about myself in third person like that was really weird.

The Joker advanced towards me with careful steps. For each step he took forward I took backwards, "And, uh, when'd she have the _opportunity_ to give i_t_, to you."

"I can't really recall the exact day. It was some odd days ago," my knees hit the edge of the roof, and The Joker lunged for me.

His sudden body weight nearly sent me tumbling off the roof, but the grip he had on my jaw prevented me from falling. He clicked open a switchblade and held it to my mouth, "That's quite the _excuse_."

My magic flared out in my moment of panic. I would have scolded myself for being so scared, but had it not happened I wouldn't have felt the other presence quickly closing in on the roof we were standing on.

"Shit," I placed a hand on the Jokers chest, and forcibly pushed him away from me. It took a little magic, but eventually he was pushed into his back.

I looked around p, and my eyes zeroed in on the black man quickly running across the rooftops. There was only one other person I knew of that ran over roofs during the night.

Looking down at the Joker I thrust a hand at him, "Stay quiet and don't move."

He narrowed his eyes at the command, but his retort was lost when a solid force slammed into my back. I was sent sprawling across the rooftop with Batman not far behind me. Apparently he didn't slow down as he got closer.

"Oh god, B," now not only did my chest hurt, but my back too, "what was that for?" My eyes blearily looked across the rooftop, and when I couldn't see Joker I knew my spell had worked. But my magic could still feel him on the roof with us, even though I made him invisible.

Batman grunted from the effort to stand back up. It seems he was affected from the impact as much as I was. Though probably less since he had armor.

Whatever he was going to say was lost on me when I remembered the mob had a reward out there for whoever brought me in.

"Batman you dumbass!" Pushing myself up from the roof I spun around to glare at the emotionless man, "I'm a wanted woman because of you!"

I could practically feel him cocking an eyebrow, "Why."

"Do you remember the last time we met? When you kidnapped me, and interrogated me in that alley?"

He gave a short nod.

"Well there was somebody else there. Someone who apparently has ties with the mob. They overheard our conversation, and now the mobs out for my head."

He just grunted, "I'm sure you'll be fine."

"Aw, B!" I hugged him, "You have faith in me!"

Batman stood there for about two seconds before roughly shoving me away from him, "Don't touch me."

"Whoa there," I brushed off my clothes for any dirt, "no need for the hostility."

He just grunted with impatience, "Sara Davis is in trouble."

I scoffed, "Yeah?"

Batman scrutinized me, "You know her." It wasn't a question.

I spluttered, "Wh-What? I'm sorry, I'm afraid I have no idea what your talking about." Turning around I started walking to the edge of the roof with a grimace. That was a real smooth denial.

A gloved hand grasped my arm and spun me around, "How do you know her?"

I tried prying his hand away, but it wouldn't budge, "Look B-Man I just know her, kay?"

"There's no way for you to know her. She has no birth certificate, no school transcripts. The only records she has are her bank accounts." His eyes narrowed at this, along with mine. He'd been snooping around my personal life. It made me feel violated.

"You have no right looking for those kinds of things. Sara's a good person, and you'd best remember that." I ripped my arm from his hand, stepped onto the ledge. My back was to the occupants of the roof as I looked down at the empty street below.

"You two are friends," Batman's raspy voice was starting to grate on my nerves. Mostly because everything he was saying was true.

"So what?" I spat. Now not only did batman know, but The Joker too. Along with my other identities name. Something I don't think he knew before.

"If she's your friend then she must have told you The Joker is after her."

I sighed, "I wouldn't say 'after her'. Maybe he just wants to visit."

"Ghost this is serious!" Batman was apparently getting tired of my careless attitude. He seemed to genuinely care for the safety of Sara Davis. Which was actually rather funny. I was being so indifferent about my own life while he was the one worried.

That and The Joker was on the roof here with us I couldn't help but chuckle, "Always so serious, eh B?" Twirling on the spot I made sure to keep my balance. Wouldn't do to fall over the edge. Looking down I cringed, and carefully waved my hand. An invisible forcefield manifested over my skin. That way if I do fall it will be less likely for me to break a bone.

"Well, I'm happy there's someone out there who's worried for Sara. God knows she needs it."

"You're not worried?" Batman demanded, "Isn't she your friend?"

"We're closer than you can imagine," my lips twitched, "but she can handle herself. If she really needs help then I'll help her, but for now she's fine."

"You once told me you had no friends," Batman narrowed his eyes. "Why would you say that when you seem to have grown close to Ms. Davis?"

I groaned, and went to answer when a loud shot rang through the air. Not even a second later I felt a searing pain hit my forehead. The force of the shot made my head snap backwards and my body jerked with it, sending me plummeting to the hard sidewalk two stories beneath me.

The magic I used on The Joker broke, and he was now visible. Had Batman been looking he would have seen genuine surprise coating the clowns face as clearly as his greasepaint. But he wasn't looking. They were both too busy staring at the roofs edge where I had been standing only moments ago.

Another shot rang out, hitting Batman in the back. Had he not been wearing the Kevlar it would have went straight through his lung. But the armor protected him from the bullet.

The gun shot shook the two of them from their surprised states, and they ducked below the three foot edge that surrounded the rooftop. This was the moment that Batman finally realized The Joker had been on the roof with them the entire time.

He cursed himself for being so careless. He should have seen The Joker the second he arrived on the roof!

More shots were fired at the roof the two men were hiding on, and while the Joker was smiling manically with Batman glaring at him, I was laying out on the pavement below with a bullet lodged in my forehead.

My eyes were staring at the sky in a daze. The pain was near intolerable, and I wondered why I wasn't dead.

I thought really hard about why the bullet hadn't gone into my head, and I vaguely remembered casting a spell to protect my body from any outward damage. It had been to protect me from breaking any bones, but it seems it could stop bullets as well. Though, I felt along my forehead, not completely. Half of the bullet was lodged in my head while the other half was sticking out.

Groaning from the pain I ever-so-slowly pushed myself into a sitting position. I took a couple of steadying breaths to get rid of the sudden dizziness before standing all the way up. My breathing was a little ragged, and I brought my magic around me in a parody of a hug.

The warmth helped clear the foggiest from my mind, and I was then able to hear the sound of a gun shooting. My eyes slowly trailed up to the roof I had just been standing on. A feral snarl curled my upper lip, and with a blast of magic I was sent soaring into the sky.

The impact was so strong it made a dent in the sidewalk.

Batman and Joker both heard the loud bang, and they looked up just in time to see my anger filled form land on the edge of the roof. Even the shooting had taken a pause.

My head tilted up enough to see the untamable fury swirling in my eyes. It made my irises look like roiling flames.

My magic spread out over every rooftop, and when it found the person responsible it zoomed in on him. I this out my arm, and a scream could be heard from rather far away. It got closer and closer until and unfamiliar man was flung into my hand.

His throat started constricting under my tight grasp, and after a few minutes of choking I spun around and flung him towards the ground below.

His hoarse screams abruptly ended when his body hit the ground. It was pretty obvious he was dead, but just for kicks I held out my hand where a ball of fire flickered into existence.

I twirled my fingers, causing the flames to grow bigger and bigger. When the flames were to my liking I shaped them into the form of a snake. It spat fire, and hissed from the heat.

Jerking my hand forward the snake darted towards the dead mans body, and he was immediately engulfed in flames. I stood there, watching as the man slowly burned away until there was nothing left.

Releasing a calming breath I stepped off of the ledge. I wasn't as comfortable standing on it now that I'd been shot off of it.

That reminded me.

Reaching up a cautious hand my fingers brushed against the small piece of metal embedded in my forehead. I grasped it as best I could and slowly pulled it out. I winced from the pain, and looked down at the blood covered bullet in my palm.

Looking over at Batman I shakily smiled, "That really hurt."

"I would, uh, _imagine_ it did," Joker started giggling hysterically, and I was tempted to silence him. His laughing was not helping my headache.

Sliding down to the ground I leaned back against the ledge. My eyes were threatening to fall, but I knew I couldn't. I needed to stay away. With such a serious injury I could probably end up dying from the conclusion alone, and wouldn't that suck.

My battle to stay away was a losing one, and the last thing I saw was a dark form rushing towards me before I slipped into unconsciousness.


	10. Chapter 10

Waking up was a slow process. My eyelids felt like lead, and my ears were ringing. It took several minutes for my head to clear, and my eyes to adjust to the bright lights illuminated above me.

My brows furrowed as I tried to remember what had happened. I was on a rooftop when I got shot. I slowly lifted up my arm to drag my fingers over my forehead. As proof for my memories there was a small, round indent in the middle of my forehead. When I looked at my fingertips they were covered in blood.

I groaned, "What the hell?" Shifting my elbows I leaned off of the steel table I had been placed on. Looking around I didn't bother to move the hair from my eyes as I tried to figure out where I was.

It was just an endless looking expanse of nothing. The entire ceiling was covered in lights, and there was a large desk with different monitors. Off to the side was a tall steel cage with a black thing standing in it, and further down was a large black…tank.

Pushing myself off of the table I looked around the underground space. I had no clue where I might be and there wasn't anything that indicated an exit.

Walking closer to the metal cage I examined the armor inside, and notice the helmet had the mouth cut out and ears sticking out of the top. My lips silently moved to form the word 'Batman?'. Turning around I looked at the monitors. I would have read them, but I was never taught how to use computers. It all just looked like a bunch of nonsense.

Concentrating on my magic I slowly pushed it from my body to get a feel for my surroundings. My magic let me know that I was truly alone in this space, but not for long.

Turning my body I looked to see a large platform lowering down into the underground room. The lower it got the more I could see who it was that was coming down. It was a man, rather old, Caucasian. I stood there and watched as the elderly man walked closer to me.

"Hello there," the old mans voice had a hint of a British accent.

I nodded regally, "Where am I?"

The old man only smiled, "Batman brought you down here when you passed out. You're lucky he got to you first."

Remembering who else was standing up on that rooftop I hummed in agreement. Between Batman and The Joker I would rather have Batman be the one to whisk me away to his hideout.

"Tell him I said thank you." The old man nodded. "I'd like to formally introduce myself," I stuck out my hand as the corner of my mouth lifted into a smirk. I had no doubt my tattoo made it look less welcoming, "I'm who they call 'The Ghost'."

The old man took my hand, "Alfred Pennyworth. Though I've heard you already know about me."

I chuckled lightly, "In a way I do, yes, but I've never met you personally."

"Well," Alfred smiled, "it's always interesting to meet Master…the Master's friends."

"Don't worry Alfred," I dropped his hand and started walking toward the lift that he entered on, "I know who he is."

"I had believed so. Master Wayne is very interested in finding out just how you know."

I stepped onto the lift, and felt the ground jerk as it began lifting upwards. Alfred, who had been walking behind me, stepped on next to me. "Maybe I will tell him one day."

The lift stopped in a dark box and Alfred took the lead to get us out of what turned out to be a shipping container. The morning sunlight briefly burned my eyes, and I blinked away the spots in vision to see we were by a dock. "What time is it?"

"A little after eight Miss Ghost."

A smile twitched its way across my face, but it soon vanished when I realized the time, "Shit, I'm late."

"Late, miss?" Alfred paused in the open door of his car to stare at me questioningly.

"I'm not The Ghost _all_ the time Mr. Pennyworth," I smiled at the slight surprise I was able to detect on the elder mans features. "I have a life outside of my nightly activities just like Batman does."

Taking a few steps forward I gave myself a little run before taking a giant leap. With a thrust of magic I was able to propel myself onto a nearby roof.

Looking back down I could see Alfred climbing into his car. He was looking up at me, and I raised my arm in silent farewell. When he returned the gesture I turned around and ran across the roof towards the inner part of the city.

Each roof I jumped on brought me closer and closer to my own apartment building. Lyra and I had agreed to meet with each other during the day to get ready for the Harvey Dent fundraiser Bruce Wayne invited us to. She was probably waiting for me down in the lobby of my building, worrying over why I'm not there.

With a quick glance at my phone I saw twelve missed calls from Lyra herself. Groaning tiredly I redialed her number and pressed my phone against my ear. It took two rings before a frantic blonde answered the other end, "Oh my god, Sara?! Where are you? I've been trying to call for hours!"

"I know," I moaned into the phone. "I was out last night and–"

"Wait! Wait," Lyra cut me off, "you went out last night, without telling me?"

"I just went out for a drink," I quickly lied. "I got onto a bit of a situation in an alleyway, but I'm okay!" No doubt Lyra would have gone on a tirade about me needing to be safe, and I needed to quickly end this part of the conversation. "I got back to my place just fine, and ended up sleeping in."

"You're home?" Lyra sounded confused.

"Yeah," I grew worried. "Why?"

"Well I was just there, and the guy at the front desk called your place, but nobody answered."

"Cause I was asleep. I probably didn't hear it." I worried my bottom lip, hoping she would buy it.

Thankfully she did, "That makes sense. So then if you're home I'll see you in a couple minutes? We've gotta get ready for the _paaartyyyy_!"

She sang the last word so out of tune I had to smile, "I'll see you in a couple minutes Lyra." Ending the call I shoved the phone into the inner pockets of my trench coat.

A few more jumps and I found myself landing on a familiar roof. There was a square cut into the roof that lead directly into my closet, and I pushed the door open to jump inside. The door easily pushed shut, and I was left to the darkness of my closet.

Fumbling blindly I found the doorknob to my closet and opened the door. I flicked on the now visible light switch so I didn't have to rely on the little light my bedroom could offer.

Peeling off my black Ghost clothes I threw them into the corner and waved a hand to make them invisible. It wouldn't do to have Lyra walk in and see them lying there.

Throwing on my bathrobe I left the closet to enter my bathroom. I needed to take a shower before Lyra came and took all of the hot water. She claimed her plumbing wasn't working, but I didn't believe her. It doesn't matter anyway because I could admit that my shower was heavenly.

Reaching beneath the sink I pulled out a towel, and my eyes caught sight of the damage done to my face. My eyes were bloodshot, and there were dark bags underneath them. The icing on the cake was the red hole slowly trickling blood down the front of my face. I brought up a hand to lightly brush away the blood, surprised that I hadn't noticed it earlier.

My hand hovered over the bullet hole. Pushing some of my magic into the tips of my fingers I dragged them over the still bleeding wound. I watched as the hole closed with only a slight tickling sensation.

Thing a shower was a great way to help my body unwind. My muscles relaxed and all of the dirt and blood I'd accumulated during my night out was washed down the drain. It also gave me the time to think of the party I would be attending. Bruce would obviously be there, but I wasn't sure how I would react to seeing him outside of our uniform. I've only met him one time as Bruce Wayne. All the other times he was dressed as Batman, and I was usually The Ghost.

With a tired sigh I washed the rest of the soap from my body before turning off the water and stepping out of the shower.

I was in the middle of drying off my hair when I heard the ding of the elevator, soon followed by Lyra's voice, "Sara!"

Wrapping the towel around my body I walked from my bathroom to open my bedroom door, "Back here!"

Making my way over to my closet I grabbed both of our dresses and carried them over to my bed. When I turned around Lyra was coming through the door. She only blinked once at my state of undress, but otherwise ignored it. "You've only just now gotten out of the shower?"

I shrugged as I made my way back into my closet to replace the towel with a robe, "Yeah, so?"

"So…!" She pulled me from the closet and shoved me into the bathroom, "You need to get ready! At this rate we'll be late!"

"Lyra," I turned to give her a crazy look, "the party isn't for five more hours."

She threw up her arms, "Exactly! You need to do your hair, then makeup, get your dress on, then we have to get a cab to the party."

I rolled my eyes, "Then go get yourself ready." Plugging in the blowdryer Lyra made me buy I started drying my hair. Usually I preferred to let my hair air dry, but I actually didn't have time to do that.

I wasn't doing anything crazy with my hair either. After blowdrying it I brought all of my hair to the top of my head, where I proceeded to wrap it into a curly bun that was kept up by a silver broach. I was never a big fan of makeup, so I stuck with foundation, pink blush, lipgloss, and black eye shadow, with black mascara and eyeliner. Last but not least was the forest green dress that fit my torso like a glove while the rest cascades to the floor. The black beaded design covered my left breast and the slit showed off my legs, allowing my black heels to be visible.

"Wow," Lyra and I were admiring one another in the elevator, "you look gorgeous Sara."

I smiled appreciatively, "As do you."

As we passed the front desk we gained a few compliments, one in particular from Barry. Lyra noticed this and proceeded to tease me about it, "Oh, who's that?"

Chuckling with amusement I flagged down a taxi, "His names Barry. He just works here." We climbed into the taxi and Lyra gave the driver Bruce Wayne's address.

"With the way he was looking at you I'd say he wants you."

"Well considering what I'm wearing right now I'd have to say several others would want me as well."

Lyra nodded her head, "That's very true."

It was about a twenty minute drive before the taxi pulled up to the penthouse. We had made it halfway up the steps when I realized something, "Wait!"

Lyra paused and turned to look at me, "What?"

Opening up my black clutch I dug through it before giving up, "Don't we need some sort of invitation? So they would know we were invited to this?"

Her lips pursed, "You're right."

We were stuck looking at each other for a moment before I sighed, "Come on," I lead her up the rest of the steps, "let's see what happens."

What Lyra didn't know was that, if they asked for an invitation, I was just going to use a little bit of magic to make them think we were allowed to be there. Which was actually true so I wouldn't be doing anything too bad.

In the end I did have to use some magic to make them think Lyra was invited. They were using a guest list to check everybody off, and while my name was in there hers wasn't. She didn't seem to offended, but I felt bad that Bruce remembered me and not her.

"Just look at us!" Lyra and I were standing against near a wall with a glass of champagne in our hands, "Mingling with the riches of Gotham."

"Uh huh," I took a sip of the champagne and scrunched my nose at the taste.

Lyra was moving her head around, obviously looking for somebody, "Where's Bruce?"

Shrugging my shoulders with a simple "I don't know" had her rolling her eyes before declaring she would go off and try to find some young man to mingle with. That left me standing alone near the wall rather awkwardly, so I decided to walk around and pretend I belonged.

Technically I did belong here since I had about as much money as everybody else here, maybe more.

It was during my small venture that I met a fairly tall man with blonde hair, blue eyes, and rather chiseled features. He was very familiar, and when I introduced myself it became obvious on who he was, "Do I know you?"

The man smiled shyly, "Harvey Dent. The uh," he gestured to the entirety of the room, "the guest of honor."

"Oh!" I snapped my fingers before pointing at him, "You're the new DA."

His smile widened just a tiny bit, and I had to admire how white this guys teeth were. "That would be me."

I held out my hand politely, "I'm Sara Davis, its nice too meet you Mr. Dent."

He took my hand without hesitation, "Just Harvey, please." We gave a firm handshake before our arms dropped to our sides.

"I'm afraid I must leave you," Harvey nodded his head in apology. "My date seems to have disappeared."

I chuckled lightly, "That's alright. I wish you luck in finding her."

The two of us parted ways and I was once again left to wander the room aimlessly. It was honestly rather boring, and only livened up when a certain billionaire playboy arrived in a helicopter with, not one, but three models on his arms.

"I'm sorry that I'm late. I'm glad to see that you all got started without me. Now where," the models left Bruce's arms and clapped his hands together, "is Harvey." He looked around the crowd briefly before finding the blonde man I'd met moments before. "The man of the hour. Where's Rachel Dawes? She is my oldest friend, come here," the crowd parted to let a dark haired woman in a long black dress to walk forward.

"You know when Rachel first told me…" I ended up tuning out the rest of his speech as I started searching for Lyra. It took me several minutes before I found her standing near the elevator.

I started making my way towards her, quickly clapping when everybody else did. Bruce most likely finished his speech.

Lyra saw me coming towards her and began approaching me as well, "Having fun?"

My eyebrows rose, "Not in the slightest. Yourself?"

The response had her rolling her eyes, "Come on Sara. There are so many cute guys here you could get with. They're rich too!" This time when my eyebrows rose she nodded her head, "Yeah you wouldn't really care about that. But I have seen a few guys here checking you out." Her eyes glanced behind me, "Oh, and here comes one now."

She conspicuously slunk back into the crowd while I was left to turn around and see who Lyra was talking about. There, weaving his way towards me, was Bruce Wayne himself.

Once he was close enough I gave him a teasing smile, "Look who decided to show up."

Bruce gave his own small grin, "Couldn't let everyone else have fun without me." A waiter walked by with a tray of drinks, and Bruce grabbed two. One was passed to me and I took it delicately but didn't drink any.

"I hope you enjoy the party more than I do. It's been a real drag," most would have found that comment rude, but with the lack of conversation I decided to be honest.

Thankfully Bruce found it funny and chuckled, "Well I'll do my best to liven it up."

Now it was my turn to chuckle, "You've done a good job so far," I gestured the champagne glass to the helicopter parked on the roof.

Something buzzed and I watched as Bruce reached into one of his pockets to pull out a small phone. It didn't look very significant, but whatever the message was must have been very serious. "It was lovely seeing you here Sara," he tucked away the phone, "but I'm afraid this is rather urgent."

I gave him a nod and watched as he walked further into the crowd of rich party goers. I kept my eyes on his back long enough to see him look back at me. He hesitated before mouthing the words, "Be careful."

Furrowing my brows in confusion I nodded anyway. Something was obviously wrong, and I felt as if I should have known what it was.

I leaned against the wall in thought. My eyes blankly lord around as if the room would give me some sort of clue. They landed on a familiar elderly man that has met The Ghost only hours before.

We exchanged nods and I watched him approach the elevator. It opened as soon as he got there, but he immediately had to step back because a man was shoved out of it.

Alfred stepped to the side and I heard a voice from the elevator say, "We made it."

The owner of the voice stepped out of the elevator. I had time to recognize his purple suit and grease-painted face before he rose his gun in the air and shot it, proceeding to scare everybody in the room into silence.

"Good evening ladies and gentleman." The Joker examined his surroundings as his goons trickled out of the elevator,"We are tonight's…_entertainment_." After speaking he grabbed a shrimp and popped it into his mouth. After rapidly chewing he looked around the room, "I only have one question…where is Harvey. Dent."

Silence reigned, and from my position by the elevator I couldn't see his face, but I could imagine him rolling his eyes.

With the lack of answer The Joker brought up his gun and began pointing it at people. I tensed when it was pointed directly at Lyra, but instead of shooting her he took her glass of champagne, spilled half on the floor, and drank the rest. He slammed the glass down and continuously asked everyone he passed if they knew who or where Harvey was.

He grabbed on man by the face, "Do you know where I can find _Harvey_? I need to talk to him about something. Just something little," he let go of the man to pinch his fingers in the air. The man was silent so Joker grabbed the top of his head and shook it, "_No_."

Nobody had the gut to say anything in response, and because of this The Joker continued towards more guests, "You know, I'll settle for his loved ones." While he was eating more shrimp the man in front of him decided to try being brave, "We're not intimidated by thugs."

The Joker examined his face, "You know," he grabbed the mans champagne and set it aside, "you remind me of my father." With quick reflexes his hands shot to grab the man by the head. One hand was on the back of his head while the other held a knife to his mouth, "I **hated** my father."

Immediately after the words left his mouth a feminine voice rang through the room, "Okay, stop." We all looked over to see none other than Rachel Dawes stepping forward.

The Joker released the man and started walking towards her, "Well hello beautiful," he went so far as to slick back his hair. He pointed his knife at her, "You must be Harvey's _squeeze_." The closer he got the more uncomfortable Rachel became. "And you Re beautiful."

Rachel cringed when he began circling around her. "Oh you look nervous," Joker gestured to his face, "is it the scars?" He leaned closer, "You wanna know how I got 'em?" Before she could say "no" he grabbed her face, ignoring her struggles to get away.

"Hey, look at me," his knife hovered at her mouth, "I had a wife, _like you_, who tells me I worry too much. Who tells me I ought to _smile_ more. Who gambles, and gets in deep with the sharks–hey," he stilled her turning head. "One day they carve her face. We have no money for surgeries, she can't take it. I just want to see her smile again, hm? I just want her to know that I don't care about the _scars_. So, I stuck a razor in my mouth, and do this," his head turned to show off the scars, "to myself. And you know what? She can't stand the _sight_ of me. She _leaves_. Now I see the funny side. Now I'm always smiling."

Rachel sees her opening when he lifts one of his arms, and punches him in the gut. He backs off with a breathy laugh, "A little fight in you," his knife was waving at her. "I like that."

A growled voice joined the exchange, "Then you're gonna love me."

With one punch Batman had The Joker laying on the floor. It gave him the opportunity to fight the goons that decided to try their luck against the vigilante.

Instead of joining the fight The Joker decided to throw one of his goons at Batman. He got a lucky punch that sent Batman to his knees, and Joker proceeded to kick him with a knife protruding from his shoe. When he went for a second kick Batman punched him away.

He easily beat off the goon, and when he stood up straight he saw Joker holding Rachel at gunpoint, "Drop the gun."

All of the fighting had me wanting to change this restricting dress into my usual Ghost uniform and just blast them all away. A simple snap would have had them in handcuffs. Unfortunately too many people would witness my actions, and I wanted to let the movie play out.

"Oh sure," The Joker waved his gun around while slowly backing up to the window, "you just take off your little mask and show us _all_ who you really are. Hm?" With a laugh Joker pointed his gun behind him and shot the window, making all of the glass shatter. With a little maneuvering he had Rachel hanging out of it.

I cringed at Batman's next words, "Let her go."

The Joker furrowed his brows, "Very poor choice of words." With an exhilarated laugh he released Rachel's arm, sending her tumbling out the window and down to the streets below.

Batman wasted no time jumping out after her, and leaving the rest of us at The Jokers mercy.

For a few moments everybody was silent. Joker was standing in front of the window and giggling every few moments. "Well," he clapped his hands, "seems Dent isn't here." We all heard him click his tongue, "Let's go boys."

The goons seemed confused but did as their boss said. One by one they filtered back into the other one, and held the door until Joker walked inside. He stood in the very front of the group, and his eyes were staring at the ceiling of the elevator as the heavy doors slid closer and closer.

I stepped in front of the elevator and slowly lifted my champagne. The moment the glass grazed my painted lips The Joker looked straight ahead. We made eye contact through the three inch gap and, with the hand holding my champagne glass, I lifted my middle finger.

Before the doors fully closed I saw his eyes widen in recognition, and even after the elevator was going down I could hear his maniacal laughter. That was my signal to let me know he saw my gesture.

People were scrambling around me to rush out of the penthouse, and I felt somebody grab my arm, "Sara! Let's get out of here!"

I looked to see her terror filled eyes. That immediately had me nodding my head in agreement, and the two of us followed the sea of people to try and find another way to exit the tower.


End file.
